Australian breakdancer Raygun will no longer compete after the wave of backlash she got following her performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Thirty-seven-year-old Rachael Gunn was not given any points during the event, but she did get a lot of criticism, People reported on Thursday.
She has since made a big decision regarding her style of dancing.
“I’m not going to compete anymore, no. I was going to keep competing, for sure, but that seems really difficult for me to do now to approach a battle,” she said.
An image shows her during the competition doing a move some described as her mimicking a kangaroo hopping:
“Yeah, I mean I still dance, and I still break. But, you know, that’s like in my living room with my partner. It’s been really upsetting. I just didn’t have any control over how people saw me or who I was,” she added.
Following her performance, Raygun said, “I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly”:
In September, Raygun said during an interview with Australia’s Channel 10 she was sorry for the backlash her performance brought on the breakdancing community, Breitbart News reported.
The article noted she lost all three of her match-ups against other dancers before her performance was parodied around the world.
The article continued:
Commentators have questioned how she qualified for the Games, with some of her more fierce critics back home calling her a national embarrassment.
…
An excerpt of the prerecorded interview published on news.com.au showed Gunn making an apology to the breakdancing community, after the criticism she had damaged the art form’s reputation. Gunn said it was “really sad” to hear the negative reaction to her performance.
“And I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced, but I can’t control how people react,” she stated.
