Photo: AFP/Screenshot
Australian breakdancer Rachel Gunn, better known as B-Girl Raygun, has not been able to break again after copping a huge backlash for her performance in Paris.
In her first interview since the event a month ago, Gunn told The Project Australia she was still processing the world's reaction - she has not been able to watch footage of her Olympic outing in which she lost all three of her round robin battles, where breaking made its Olympic debut.
"I got some mental health support pretty quickly and I also went off social media, I went off the internet. But it's pretty up and down, it's just hard to process, it's still pretty hard to process," Gunn told host Waleed Aly via a video interview on Wednesday night.
Gunn, a 36-year-old Australian university lecturer, was pilloried online and in mainstream media. Gunn had to plead for privacy on social media and the Australian Olympic Committee condemned an online petition calling for an investigation into Gunn's selection for Games, saying it contained falsehoods aimed at inciting hatred against her.
The day after her performance, which became one of the most viral moments from the Games, Gunn was hounded by media on the city streets.
"I was actually calling my media liaison going 'These people are chasing me, what do I do?' That really did put me in a state of panic for a while after that," she said.
"I was quite nervous being in public because I just didn't know what was safe, if anyone was going to recognise me, how they were going to respond to seeing me and it was pretty nerve-wracking for a while there."
Gunn was even lampooned on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
"I haven't actually seen the sketch because I don't think I'm in a place yet to watch it. But I will watch it at some point. And, a few different people have explained it to me an given me different takes on it.
"But I'm still in the process of being able to describe how I feel about all this stuff because it kind of feels like a really weird dream that I've been having that I'm gonna wake up from at any moment, like, what is life right now?"
Many questioned if Gunn was the best breaker Australia had to offer. Others suggested that she made a "mockery" out of breaking at the Olympics, which won't be returning for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles (a call that was made before the event in Paris). But Gunn said any negative reaction to her dance ignored the diversity in the street dancing scene.
"You have the athletic-style breakers, you also have the more artistic-style breakers and all of them are very valid.
"But of course, there's been a portion of very angry and awful responses. Not only attacking me but attacking my husband, attacking my crew, attacking the breaking and street dance community in Australia.
"The energy and vitriol that people had was pretty alarming."
For now, her competitive breaking days are over, she said.
"I don't think I'll be competing for a while. I'm not really wanting to be in the spotlight, breaking or competing. It's been a bit of a process to try and start dancing again, it's actually been quite tough.
"It was my medicine and then it turned into my source of stress."
