NEED TO KNOW
- Rachel Gunn, who is known as “Raygun”, competed in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
- She received no points for her performances, and her routines made her a viral sensation.
- With that, came the backlash, which she is addressing in her Netflix documentary, Untold: Raygun: Breaking Badly.
It’s been two years since Rachel Gunn, known to the world as “Raygun”, caught the world’s attention with her breakdancing routine at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Her unconventional moves, such as the sprinkler and her kangaroo hop, made her a viral sensation, but that also brought criticism.
After being targeted by trolls and subject to mockery, she’s ready to speak her truth through the documentary Untold: Raygun: Breaking Badly, which was released on September 1 on Netflix.
“Sometimes this all feels like a really wild dream,” she said at the start of the documentary in a voiceover.
“It just still feels surreal to me. It’s like I’ve been charged with some crime.”
So, where is she now?
Scroll to find out.
What happened to Raygun?
Two years on from all the controversy, the Aussie has accepted that Paris simply as part of her life.
“For me, it’s more about radical acceptance of everything that’s happened and just one foot in front of the other, just trying to move ahead,” she explained to CNN in the lead-up to the documentary’s release.
Following her three performances, she received no points.
She told the publication that the documentary is the chance to tell her side of the story, now that all of the noise has died down.
Why did Raygun dance like that?
She set herself apart from the other dancers with her moves, telling the publication that before she competed in Paris, she knew that she moved differently from the others.
“I knew that I had a different approach to everyone else who had qualified. I’d had a very different journey through breaking as well, starting later in life,” she confessed.
With a background in ballroom dancing, jazz, and tap, her husband, Samuel Free, was the one to introduce her to the dance genre.
Going into the Olympics, she told CNN she wanted to remain true to herself.
With that, she became a punchline.
“There was this frenzy. It was a growing monster,” she said during the documentary.
“Some of the memes were funny, then the tone started to change. And it just kept getting more crazy. I can’t just be a meme. Am I Rachael, or am I Raygun.”
Following her performances, she was accused of cheating her way into the competition, with accusations that her husband judged the qualifiers before the 2024 Olympics.
“I felt like my whole life was just crumbling before me in a way that I could never have anticipated, and I was just trying to get through the day,” she said during the documentary.
“I felt like I was falling into a dark pit. I realised my life as I know it is over.”
Her husband also directly addressed it.
“I don’t know why you would think that you know nothing about anything,” he said.
“I wasn’t a judge. I was never on any selection committee.”
Event organiser Lowe Napalan also debunked the cheating allegations.
“Everything was just made up. Sammie wasn’t in charge of anything. I ran the entire qualifying event. All the judges were international,” he explained.
What does Raygun do now?
Earlier this year, she signed up to the personalised video platform, Cameo.
Fans can request video messages, from birthdays to roasts, to pep talks, and ask her questions.
At the time of publication, the videos were priced at $104.66.
In 2025, she was also a panellist for The State of Hip Hop Dance 2025: Mapping The Movement at Purdue University in the United States.
The former academic partnered with Universal Pictures Australia to promote The Bad Guys 2 sequel by showcasing her signature moves.
That same year, she helped raise funds and awareness for Lifeline Australia and Batyr Australia.
Months after her Olympic debut, The Voice Australia coach Tones and I even welcomed her to the stage during one of her concerts.
Is Raygun still teaching?
Raygun accepted a voluntary redundancy from Macquarie University’s Faculty of Arts in February.
Months later, she told Stellar that her research was being “scrutinised”, which influenced her decision to walk away after she lectured there for more than five years.
Before that, she was a Scholarly Teaching Fellow, Research Assistant, Academic Tutor, Guest Lecturer, Unit Convener, and Student Representative in the Higher Degree Research Committee.
“I felt like not only had I lost all my confidence, but I’d lost all my credibility …” the former lecturer explained. “My career disappeared overnight.”
Because of the scrutiny over her breaking routines, her academic research, which explored gender and gender politics in Australia’s breaking scene, was also analysed.
Does Raygun still breakdance?
Despite the toll of trolling, Raygun has continued to do competitive breakdancing.
“I’m not gonna let anything stop me from doing something that I love,” she shared with Stellar.
“And the breaking community has been amazing. Every event I went to, people welcomed me back, saying, ‘This is where you should be.’ I love this scene.”
“It’s such a diverse group of people – different jobs, backgrounds, languages, religions. We all come together. That’s what hip-hop is about: peace, unity, love, and having fun.”
However, dancing wasn’t something she returned to right away, and it took her time to find her feet again.
“I didn’t go back to the gym for a while because I was worried people would recognise me,” she admitted to CNN.
Now, she’s hoping that her documentary will inspire others to pursue breaking.
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