The woman at the center of a widely-shared breakdancing video from the Olympics has finally addressed the controversy surrounding her performance.
Rachael Gunn, known in the breakdancing community as Raygun, sparked debate with her routine at the Olympic breakdancing competition.
Many viewers were puzzled by her routine, feeling it didn’t demonstrate the same level of athletic skill as other contestants and featured some unconventional moves.
Raygun, who is also a lecturer in cultural studies at Macquarie University in Australia, found herself in the midst of an online storm.
The breakdancer and academic has now taken to Instagram to share her first statement since her Olympic performance garnered widespread attention.
In her statement, she described the online abuse she has faced as ‘devastating’.
She stated: “I just wanna start by thanking all the people who have supported me, I really appreciate the positivity, and I was able to bring some joy into your lives. That’s what I hoped.”
She continued: “I didn’t realise that would also open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating.”
“While I went out there and I had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly.”
“I am honoured to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of breaking’s Olympic debut.”
“What the other athletes have achieved has been phenomenal.”
Addressing the controversy, she said: “In regards to the allegations and misinformation that’s been floating around, I’d like to ask everyone to please refer to the recent statement provided by the AOC [Australian Olympic Committee], as well as the posts on the Oz Breaking Instagram page and the WDSF Breaking for Gold page.”
The breakdancer also shared some insights about scoring: “Bit of a fun fact for you, there are actually no points in breaking. If you wanna see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, you can actually see the comparison percentages across the five criteria on Olympics.com, all the results are there.”
She also criticised the media coverage of Olympic breaking and the subsequent pressure on her loved ones.
Raygun added: “I’m gonna be in Europe for a few weeks for some pre-planned downtime, but I’d really like to ask the press to please stop harassing my family, my friends, the Australian breaking community, and the broader street-dancing community.”
“Everyone has been through a lot as a result of this, so I ask you to please respect their privacy.”