Polarising Olympic breaker Rachael Gunn still dances in her living room but has revealed she’s quit competing.
The 37-year-old from Sydney, known globally as “Raygun”, admitted in a radio interview on Wednesday “the level of scrutiny” surrounding her following her Paris 2024 campaign had forced her to retire.
“I still break, but I don’t compete. I’m not going to compete anymore. No, no,” Gunn said on 2DayFM’s Jimmy and Nath Show.
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“I still dance and I still break, but that’s like in my living room with my partner.
“I think the level of scrutiny that’s going to be there … and the people will be filming it, it’ll go online, and it’s just not going to mean the same thing, it’s not going to be the same experience because of everything that’s at stake.”
The university lecturer said she’d planned on continuing to compete heading into the Paris Games, but the backlash she copped after pulling off moves such as the sprinkler and the hopping kangaroo while decked out in a Team Australia tracksuit, instead of traditional streetwear, had killed the drive.
“That seems a really difficult thing for me to do now, to approach a battle,” Gunn said.
She yielded no wins and zero points from three battles as breaking made its Olympic debut.
It had already been confirmed prior to the Paris Games that breaking would not feature at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, although the sport could return for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.
Gunn retreated from the spotlight for about a month after the Paris Games, but has since appeared in a host of TV and radio interviews.
She also made a front-page appearance in the Stellar magazine last month.
“Dancing is so much fun and it makes you feel good and I don’t think people should feel crap about the way that they dance,” Gunn said on the Jimmy and Nath Show on Wednesday.
“If you get out there and you have fun on the dance floor, then just own it.”