The breakdancer Raygun has largely stayed silent since her infamous Olympic performance, even as she has been the butt of a slew of jokes mocking her unorthodox moves.
“It’s been a pretty wild ride,” she said, adding that “it was really sad how much hate that did evoke.”
On Aug. 9, Gunn competed for Australia in the women’s breaking event, losing all three of her matches without scoring a single point. Her signature move, dubbed the “kangaroo paw,” quickly became the subject of myriad memes, a parody sketch on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and a sidebar at an Adele concert. Meanwhile, she captured the hearts of her countrymen.
Days after her performance, a Change.org petition went online attacking Gunn’s selection, breaking qualifications and role as a university academic. The Australian Olympic Committee condemned it as “vexatious, misleading and bullying,” saying it contained “numerous falsehoods designed to engender hatred against an athlete.”
The petition was quickly taken down — but not before attracting more than 57,000 signatures, according to a cached version of the site.
Six days after her performance, Gunn posted a two-minute Instagram video, and while she did not directly mention the petition, she said there was “misinformation floating around” about her and referred people to the statement from the AOC. She called the “hate” she had received “devastating.”
In the interview segment posted Wednesday, Gunn told “The Project” that the “conspiracy theories were just awful” and driven by not understanding how breaking works. Some dancers adopt an athletic style, which involves the power moves most people associate with breakdancing, she said. Gunn said she trained hard to learn those power moves, but when you’re in your mid-30s, it’s “not easy.”
“I have really put my body through it, put my mind through it, but if that’s not good enough for someone, what can I say?” she said.
Because she knew she couldn’t compete with younger dancers on the athletic power moves, Gunn said she decided to adopt a more artistic style, highlighting distinctly Australian moves and themes, including the kangaroo, which led to several of the moves for which she has been pilloried.
After her interviewer quoted an Australian “hip-hop legend” accusing her of “making a mockery of the Australian scene” and pushing it “into the dark ages,” Gunn said the criticism saddened her and apologized, but she went on to say that she’s not responsible for what others do.
“I am very sorry for, you know, the backlash that the community has experienced,” she said, “but I can’t control how people react.”
Gunn did ask her detractors to control themselves. They haven’t only attacked her but also her husband, her crew and the breakdancing community in Australia with an “energy and vitriol that … was pretty alarming,” she said, adding a request that they “please stop harassing my family, my friends.”
“Everyone has been through a lot as a result of this,” she said.
Gunn said she’s trying to focus on the upside. Billionaire Richard Branson has contacted her to say he liked her “plucky” and “courageous” performance and suggested they work together, she said. Most of her fellow breakers have rallied around her with support. While dancing, even in private, temporarily turned into a source of stress, it’s back to being “my medicine.” And Gunn has been able to be grateful for all that, despite getting destroyed on a global stage in front of millions of people.
“It’s going out there and just having fun and going as hard as you can, in the face of, you know, losing.”
