Breakdancer Raygun Felt Her Life Was ‘Crumbling’ Post-Olympics

Two summers ago, the internet received the gift of Raygun, an Australian breakdancer who kangaroo-hopped her way into the 2024 Paris Olympics. Her unconventional breakdancing moves during her final performance against Lithuania’s Dominika Banevič (B-Girl Nicka) baffled audiences at home and cemented her as a meme royalty. Now, Dr. Rachael Gunn is saying her peace about the most stressful time of her life in the new Netflix documentary Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly. “Some of the memes were funny, then the tone started to change,” she says in the doc. “It really saddened me to see how many women decided to hate on me. I was a hot-topic talking point, so just rip into me.” Conspiracy theories floated online about how she even qualified for the Olympics in the first place, with some theorizing that her husband Samuel Free helped her get on the Australian national team. B-boy Lowe Napalan quickly debunked that rumor, explaining that Mr. Raygun had no voting power at the 2023 Oceania Breaking Championships. Leah Clark, a.k.a. B-Girl Flix, stated that Gunn was voted the best B-girl at the qualifier, which earned her a spot at the Olympics.

After her performance, Gunn said she had to escape to Europe because of her infamy. “We kept thinking it’ll be over by tomorrow, by the weekend, by the end of the Games. It just kept getting an extra gust of wind,” she says. Rachel Dratch imitated her moves on Jimmy Fallon, Adele said she was the “best thing that happened at the Olympics” at one of her Vegas concert residencies, and professional athletes broke out into the kangaroo on the field for months after. Someone even got a tattoo of her kangaroo pose. After dealing with the online hate (and appreciation) for months, Gunn’s mental health took a toll. Gunn recorded video diaries to cope, documenting how “nervous” she was “being so exposed.” “My whole life was crumbling before me in a way I had never anticipated,” she says. “I wasn’t certain we would get through that. It was a massive trauma. People don’t get through that,” her husband adds.

Gunn still struggled with the idea of coming back home until Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson invited her on one of his cruise ships for her return to Australia. “That was a lifeline, to be honest; it really kept me grounded, and I knew I could get through this,” she says. Now, she can laugh at herself and see how many people enjoyed her performance. “I know for sure that I’m never going to stop dancing,” she admits. “I know I’m a dorky white woman who’s an academic, and I’m okay with that.”

Why Breakdancer Raygun Felt Her Life Was ‘Crumbling’