Where Is Raygun Now? Australian Breakdancer Gave an Update 2 Years After Viral Olympics

Raygun has returned to the dance floor.

The Australian breakdancer set social media on fire with her viral performances at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, unleashing a torrent of posts ridiculing her skills.

Two years later, she has shared an update on her life and her Olympic ordeal in the new documentary “Raygun: Breaking Badly,” which is part of Netflix’s “Untold” series.

“I went out there and performed, and I didn’t do as well as I hoped, and then the world freaked out,” Gunn says in the film.

Here is what to know about her story and how she is doing now.

Who Is Raygun?

Raygun is the name used for breaking competitions by Australian Olympian Rachael Gunn.

At the time of the 2024 Olympics, she was a lecturer at Sydney’s Macquarie University with a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, according to CNBC.

Breaking was introduced as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Games, and Gunn was the women’s qualifier from the Oceania region after winning a competition in Sydney.

She gained notoriety with her two performances in Paris in which she did not earn a single point from the judges across four rounds, losing by a combined 36-0 to two competitors. One particular move in which she mimicked a kangaroo in honor of her native country was turned into a meme.

Social media videos across multiple platforms mocked Gunn’s skills and questioned how she qualified for the Olympics. It brought to life a fear leading up to the Games that she says she shared with her therapist.

“She was like, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’” Gunn says in the Netflix documentary.

“The worst that could happen is that the whole world could laugh at me,” Gunn says she replied.

“She’s like, ‘Do you think that’s reasonable?’” Gunn says her therapist answered.

An Australian B-girl who goes by Flix says in the Netflix show that she was “offended” and “embarrassed” by Gunn’s performance in Paris.

Another B-girl who goes by Tinylocks, who had previously beaten Gunn in competition, says in the documentary that she told her friends after Gunn’s performance that Gunn was “going to need psychological support.”

Gunn, 38, also shared the strange sensation of realizing she was going viral for all the wrong reasons. Adele was talking about it on stage at one of her concerts, and an NFL player mimicked her kangaroo pose while celebrating an interception.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m a meme,” she says in the documentary. “It was this growing monster. Some of the memes were funny and then the tone started to change.

“It really saddened me to see how many women just decided to hate on me,” she continued. “It was a hot topic talking point to just rip into me.”

She felt like the whole thing might blow over by the end of the Olympics, but it showed no signs of stopping. She shared an Instagram video in August 2024 in which she said all the hate had “been pretty devastating.”

Videos started to circulate alleging she cheated her way into an Olympic berth, which the organizer of the Oceania qualifying event shot down as untrue.

“I was cringe,” she says in the documentary. “I brought shame and embarrassment on the country. Yeah, that was rough.”

She says she felt like her whole life was “crumbling” and she was just trying to get through the day. She also was on antidepressants to deal with the anxiety.

What Happened to Raygun After the Olympics?

Gunn and her husband, Sammy Free, say on the Netflix documentary that they took a trip to the Netherlands for two months after the Olympics to lie low in Europe.

Free is a dancer who introduced Gunn to the art form, but her love for breaking had taken a hard turn after Paris.

“I felt like I was falling into a dark pit,” Gunn says in the film.

She called her parents distraught, and she said her father was crying and asking, “Why you? Out of everyone that was there, why you?”

“I realized my life as I know it is over,” Gunn says.

An Unexpected Lifeline

Gunn reveals in the documentary that she received an emotional lift from Richard Branson, the British billionaire and co-founder of the Virgin Group.

Branson reached out to Gunn after watching her Olympic performance and witnessing the backlash.

“In my opinion, she did something extraordinary,” Branson says in the documentary. “She tried something completely original. She stood out from the crowd.”

He invited Gunn and her husband on a cruise, where she danced for an appreciative crowd.

“The idea was that maybe we could change the narrative a bit,” Branson says.

“That was a lifeline to be honest because that really kept me grounded, and I knew I could get through this,” Gunn says.

Where Is Raygun Now?

Two years removed from her Olympic experience, Gunn has rediscovered her love of dancing.

“I’ve been doing little gradual pushes this whole way, and today my goal is just to dance in front of people and to show what happened after Paris hasn’t defeated me,” she says. “I know for sure I’m never going to stop dancing. Time to be a big brave girl and let’s do this.”

The documentary shows her performing in front of a cheering crowd in Taiwan.

Gunn also reveals that she has left her job in academia.

“I’m excited for what’s next,” she says. “I’m open to where this journey may take me.”