Rachael Gunn, more famously known as Raygun, has made it known that she has decided to retire from competitive breakdancing following her viral moment at the Olympics.
You might not be a sports enthusiast, yet you could still recognize Raygun’s notable performance during the Paris 2024 Games, where she competed in the women’s breaking category for Australia.
Her unique breakdancing skills quickly captured the attention of social media, with numerous users sharing videos and pictures of her Olympic routine—reviews varied in kindness.
Raygun discussed her newfound fame during a guest appearance on the Jimmy & Nath Show on November 5, where she looked back at the event.
During the interview, she unveiled her plan to step away from the competitive breakdancing scene.
Raygun expressed, “I’d still break, but I’m not going to compete anymore. I was going to keep competing, for sure, but that seems really difficult thing for me to do now, to approach a battle … I mean, I still dance and I still break but, that’s like in my living room with my partner.”
She noted that her participation in the Olympics has introduced a ‘level of scrutiny’ she had not experienced before, stating, “People will be filming it and it will go online, and it’s just got not going to mean the same thing. It’s not going to be the same experience because of everything that’s at stake.”
On November 7, Raygun clarified her intentions during an appearance on Australia’s The Project, emphasizing that retirement was not the correct term—she was merely taking a step back from the limelight.
She explained, “I was talking about competing, and yeah, I don’t really see myself competing anymore. And then, like, ‘Global news: Raygun is retiring,’ and it just kind of has gotten a little bit out of hand.”
Raygun reiterated, “Raygun’s not retiring,” and clarified her position in the breakdancing community, saying, “But I think I mean, because it’s different in breaking culture, I’m still going to dance, and I said that in the interview. I’m still going to dance, I’m still going to go to community jams. I’m still probably going to get down and and dance and enter a community jam, things like that.
“But in terms of those elite competitions, and the Olympics, which by the way, breaking is not even in the Olympics in the next one, so it kind of turned into a really big thing today.”
The exclusion of breakdancing from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics was confirmed in 2022 when 28 sports were approved for the event.