Embattled Olympian Rachael “Raygun” Gunn spoke out for the first time Thursday as the backlash from her breaking Paris Games performance intensifies.
Appearing in an Instagram Video, the Australian — who went viral last week during the Olympics’ inaugural breakdancing competition, where she lost all three of her matches 18-0 — said she “didn’t realize” what unfolded in Paris “would also open the door to so much hate,” which she called “pretty devastating.”
“Hi everyone, Raygun here. I just want to start by thanking all the people who have supported me, I really appreciate the positivity and I’m glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives, that’s what I hoped,” the 36-year-old Gunn began.
View this post on Instagram
“I didn’t realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating. While I went out there and I had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly. I’m honored to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of breaking’s Olympic debut. What the other athletes have achieved has just been phenomenal.”
Gunn then addressed the “allegations and misinformation floating around” in the wake of her widely criticized performance, including an online petition the Australian Olympic Committee has since denounced.
“I’d like to ask everyone to please refer to the recent statement made by the AOC, as well as the posts on the Ausbreaking Instagram page, as well as the WDSF Breaking for Gold page,” said Gunn, a breaking researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney.
“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 comparison percentages across the five criteria on Olympics.com.”
Gunn, who is going to enjoy some “pre-planned downtime” in Europe, then requested the media to “please stop harassing” her loved ones and the Australian breaking community, among others.
“Everyone has been through a lot as a result of this so I ask you to please respect their privacy,” she said. “I’ll be happy to answer more questions on my return to Australia.”
Gunn, who performed a slew of curious moves at the Olympics and was subsequently mocked on late-night TV, has received support from the AOC amid the online petition that boldly “called for a full investigation into the selection process.”
“It is disgraceful that these falsehoods concocted by an anonymous person can be published in this way,” Matt Carroll, the chief executive officer of the AOC, said in a statement. “It amounts to bullying and harassment and is defamatory. We are demanding that it be removed from the site immediately. No athlete who has represented their country at the Olympic Games should be treated in this way… “
Members of Gunn’s family have also spoken out following the controversy, with father-in-law Andrew Free, the dad of Gunn’s husband, Samuel, blasting the judges in their assessment of her Olympics routine.
“It was a pretty stacked competition and the judges were clearly looking for a certain style of breaking which is not Rachael’s,” Free wrote on Facebook, per reports.
“Although they are supposed to mark 5 different aspects with each having the same weighting, in my obviously biased opinion they did not reward originality and musicality so she was up against it.
“The main thing is she represented Australia and breaking at the Olympics with courage and dignity.
Ami Yuasa of Japan took gold in the women’s Olympic breaking competition while Dominika Banevic of Lithuania earned silver and China’s Liu Qingyi secured bronze.
