- Rachel Gunn aka Raygun went viral after her breaking performance at the Paris Olympics
- The Australian was widely mocked online and has been dealing with backlash on social media
- Gunn said in a recent Instagram video that the ‘hate’ has been ‘devastating’
Rachel Gunn, the college professor with a degree in cultural studies who became a worldwide viral sensation off the back of her performance in the Olympic breaking competition in Paris earlier this month, has addressed the ‘devastating’ hate she has received following her performance.
Gunn, who goes by the name Raygun, saw her dance become a meme on social media after she failed to progress past the first round. The 36-year-old was a victim of misinformation being spread about her and the selection process which allowed her to compete in the games, and has now taken to Instagram to address those who have aimed abuse and mockery in her direction over the last couple of weeks.
Captioned “Thank you to all my supporters – absolute legends” the video features Gunn talking about how hard she worked to get to the Olympics while also explaining how difficult the last few weeks have been for her in the face of the adversity that has come her way.
“I am honoured to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team and a part of breaking’s Olympic debut,” Gunn says in the video, “in regards to the allegations and misinformation floating around, I’d like everyone to please refer to the recent statement made by the AOC as well as the posts on the Aus Breaking Instagram page as well as the WDSF Breaking For Gold page. Bit of a fun fact for you, there are actually no points in breaking. If you want to see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, you can actually see the comparisons percentages across the five criteria on olympics.com. All the results are there.
“I’m going to be in Europe for a few weeks for some pre-planned downtime. I would like to ask the press to please stop harrassing my family, my friends, the Australian breaking community and the broader street dance community. Everyone has been through a lot as a result of this so I please ask you to respect their privacy. I’ll be happy to answer more questions on my return to Australia.”
