It took just a few minutes for Raygun’s life to take a sharp and unexpected turn.
Before the 2024 Summer Olympics, Rachael Gunn was a dancer known mostly to the Australian breaking community.
By the time the Games concluded, Gunn had become a viral sensation for her notorious routine which has been mocked in every corner of the internet and even on late-night talk shows.
“It’s been so hard to process,” she told Stellar. “My whole world has changed. My identity has changed. My relationships have changed, for better or for worse. It’s in times like these that you find out who your real friends are, unfortunately. And because things are still changing, it’s just impossible to wrap your head around. It’s hard to predict what it’s going to be like when I leave the house.
“It’s still a process because I’m having to (prioritize) my own health. I speak to my family when I can, but it’s hard for me to know the toll it’s taken on them because I think that will take a toll on me.”
Gunn, who appeared on the magazine’s cover in a blue dress, said she keeps a file of positives and funny photos and clips to help keep her in a positive spot mentally amid all the outside noise.
Many have mocked her for her routine that registered a 0.0 score, laughing at her Kangaroo hop during her performance and even comparing her to a Golden Retriever rolling around on the ground.
Conspiracy theories emerged about how she even qualified for the Olympics team.
Gunn said she does not mind the lighter-sided takes on her infamous performance.
“My friends were all sending them to me and I loved it,” she told the outlet. “I loved the people laughing with me because, yeah, I was doing some wacky stuff. I know that.”
The harsher takes and criticism, though, have left a mark. She noted that the bias allegations against her husband and coach Samuel Free truly stung.
Gunn told the magazine the experience has resulted in her anxiety being “really bad.”
She needed someone around her constantly, even just to exit her home, and she stopped wearing a baseball hat since it made it easier to recognize her.
“People really have tried to shame me,” she told Stellar
“This is a process that I’m working through, trying to resist that shame. I’m working through mental health stuff, seeing my psychologist, doing exercise when I don’t feel like it, doing breathing exercises. (My mental health) is now something that I have to look after – it’s being exhausted. It’s definitely taken a toll.”
The focus on mental health came at the suggestion of her new manager that she hired amid her new-found celebrity status.
Gunn has tried to avoid staying in the headlines, with the story noting she has declined many invitations to appears on shows, instead focusing on reading and “doing a big spring clean.”
“There was so much hate and emotion that I needed to wait for everyone to calm down a bit,” Gunn told Stellar.
“I’ve got a few new projects that I’m working on right now that I’m really excited about (that are) (centered) around self-expression and joyfulness.”
Gunn defended her inclusion in the Paris Games, telling the magazine how she was the No. 1 Australian B-Girl in 2020, 2022 and 20223.
“Of course I knew my level,” Gunn said. “I did want to go out there and show people that it was OK to be yourself in spite of the world watching, in spite of having to come up against people that are really amazing dancers – younger [and with] different approaches … to just do what feels right for you.”
Gunn also believes her age — 37 — factored into the focus on her performance.
When she’s not breakdancing, Gunn serves as a lecturer at Macquarie University. She holds a PhD in cultural studies.
“I’m a confident woman who is 37, without kids, with a career, having fun,” Gunn told the outlet.
“Our culture is very obsessed with age. I think it’s been a real sticking point for a lot of people: me essentially not knowing my place, what I should be doing with my time at this age; (in their view) it’s certainly not participating in that environment, even though I wasn’t the oldest there.”
She added: “I had a few people tell me on Facebook and on Instagram what I should be doing … that I should be picking the kids up from school.”
Gunn said the focus on her performance shows the difference in how men and women are treated, as she believes a man would not have been ridiculed to the extent she has.
“I saw a great meme that was like, ‘The world is hard on silly women,’ with a photo of me. Women aren’t allowed to be silly,”Gunn said. “But I think if I was a man, I would have very quickly been given the (maverick) title and people would have rallied behind me a lot more.”
She added that the Paris Games displayed “the best and the worst for gender equality.”
Gunn hopes that the highs and lows she endured will help people remember that all the jokes and laughs come at the expense of a person. There’s a human element to it all that shouldn’t be forgotten.
She also wants breakdancing to stay in the national discussion and not just start and end with her.
For now, Gunn is doing what she can to change the narrative surrounding her.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done in trying to rebuild my image. I’ll just let people get to know me a bit more, because they just don’t,” she told Stellar.
“I feel like every time I put myself out there again, it’s a bit of a power move.
“I think the haters want me to be locked away in a room, ashamed and quiet. Every time I leave the house, go out for dinner, go to the shops or do a fashion shoot and pop my head back up, it’s saying, ‘No, you did not bring me down. You did not succeed. I still stand by what I did. It’s OK to be different. It’s OK to be yourself. You don’t have the power you think you do.’”