Breaking community still working to escape Raygun’s shadow

New York – Two years after Australian breaker Raygun’s much-maligned Olympic performance, the breaking community wants to move on from the Paris Games debacle and reshape perceptions of a hip-hop art form they say was unfairly defined by a single routine. Raygun, whose real name is Rachael Gunn, became the focus of intense scrutiny and suffered online backlash following her performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the Australian lost all three of her round-robin battles without scoring a point. Her unconventional routine drew widespread ridicule on social media.

Today, her performance has become synonymous with breaking, according to David Shreibman, known as B