There was a lot to focus on at the 2024 Paris Olympics—from the return of Simone Biles to all the standout beauty moments and Tom Cruise’s closing-ceremony stunt—but one aspect of the Games is still riveting the internet, and that’s Raygun.
Not ringing a bell? I’m referring to Rachel Gunn, the Australian B-girl who has become something of a pop-cultural sensation ever since she, well…lost during the round-robin stage of the women’s breaking competition in Paris. (Breaking made its debut as an Olympic event this year.) Hey, anyone can win, but it takes a truly unique character to captivate social media without scoring a single point.
Below, find everything you need to know about Raygun, whose rapid-onset virality is already generating controversy.
What is Rachel Gunn’s background?
The 36-year-old dancer and lecturer at Sydney’s Macquarie University earned her PhD in cultural studies in 2007 and describes herself on the school’s website as being “interested in the cultural politics of breaking.” (Among her stated research interests areas are “breaking, street dance, and hip-hop culture,” the “politics of gender and gender performance,” and “youth cultures/scenes.” In addition to her academic cred, Gunn has a background in jazz and ballroom dancing. She was introduced to breaking while dating her now husband, fellow breaker Samuel Free.
How did Raygun qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics?
Raygun was the top-ranked B-girl in the Australian Breaking Association in 2020 and 2021, representing the country at the World DanceSport Federation Breaking Championships in 2021 through 2023 and winning the WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships in 2023. Although her Olympic performance was ultimately something of a disappointment, no less an authority than Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese weighed in on Raygun’s unique style, saying in a press conference: “Raygun had a crack, good on her, and a big shout out to her. That is in the Australian tradition of people having a go. She’s had a go representing our country, and that’s a good thing.”
What’s the controversy associated with Raygun?
Where to begin? It’s been erroneously claimed that her husband was one of the judges at the 2023 WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships that allowed his wife to qualify for the Olympics, and a Change.org petition has circulated alleging (also, it seems, erroneously) that Gunn “set up her own governing body for breakdancing” and “manipulated the selection process to her own advantage” by denying funding to a group of underprivileged youth breakers from Australia’s Northern Territory. Other criticism has centered less on Raygun herself than the very nature of breaking, and who gets to claim ownership of a discipline that emerged from Black and Brown communities in the Bronx in the 1970s.
Has Raygun spoken out about her complex rise to fame?
“What I wanted to do was come out here and do something new and different and creative—that’s my strength, my creativity,” Gunn told ESPN last week shortly after losing to three international rivals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She added: “I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get that in a lifetime to do that on an international stage. I was always the underdog and wanted to make my mark in a different way.”
How has the internet responed to all of this?
With so, so many imitations, reactions, and memes. (Adele, for one, was a big fan, calling Raygun’s performance “the best thing that’s happened in the Olympics the entire time.”) See a few of them below.