Raygun has issued a deeply personal message to the world after her disastrous performance at the Olympic Games saw her become a viral sensation.
The Australian, whose real name is Rachael Gunn, failed to impress the judges in Paris as she writhed around the floor mimicking a snake, hopped like a kangaroo and performed the sprinkler during the inaugural breaking competition.
As a result, she has been widely mocked online while some people spread false and malicious rumours suggesting she benefitted from a flawed selection process.
But now Raygun has spoken for the first time to share her thoughts on her performance, the online onslaught and the wild conspiracy theories during a personal message posted on Instagram.
In the statement, she says:
‘Hi everyone, Raygun here. I just wanna start by thanking all the people who have supported me.
‘I really appreciate the positivity and I am glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives, that is what I had hoped.
‘I didn’t realise that that would also open the door to so much hate which has frankly been pretty devastating.
Raygun has spoken for the first time since going viral at the Olympic Games in Paris
She said that the online hate following her performance has been ‘pretty devastating’
‘While I went out there and had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave it my all. Truly.
‘I’m honoured 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.
‘In regards to the allegations and misinformation floating around, 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.
‘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 all five criteria on Olympics.com, all the results are there.
‘I’m going to be in Europe for a few weeks, for some pre-planned downtime but I would really like to ask the press to please stop harassing my family, my friends, the Australian breaking community and the broader street dance community. Everyone has been through a lot as a result of this, so I ask you to still respect their privacy.
‘I will be happy to answer more questions on my return to Australia.’
