Raygun the Australian Olympic Breakdancer

About

Raygun is the stage name for 36-year-old Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn who competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics at the B-Girls breaking event. Gunn is also a professor at Macquarie University with a Ph.D. in cultural studies, focused on breakdancing. Multiple videos of Raygun performing at the Olympics went viral on Twitter / X and Reddit in August 2024. Many made fun of Raygun because of her seemingly poor performance, resulting in zero points overall and her elimination from the event. One video showed Raygun rolling around on the floor. Raygun the Australian Olympic Breakdancer memes surfaced across social media in August 2024, many of which championed Raygun because internet users lacking athletic skills saw themselves in her. Then, users discovered that Raygun had a Ph.D. and was a professor, resulting in more viral reactions and memes.

History

Rachel Gunn is a 36-year-old breakdancer from Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia, who goes by "Raygun" on stage.^[7] Gunn is a professor of breaking at Macquarie University and has a Ph.D. in cultural studies, focused on breakdancing. She began breaking in 2008 when her husband introduced her to the dance style. Gunn qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced breaking to the Games that year.^[6]

Raygun's predominant online presence is on her Instagram^[8] account @raygun_aus. She posted her first Instagram^[9] post on August 15th, 2015.

2024 Summer Paris Olympics

On August 9th, 2024, Raygun competed in the B-Girls breaking competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. Raygun did not advance after the day's event after scoring zero points across three matches.^[1]

Online Presence

Viral posts about Raygun surfaced online amid the B-Girls event at the 2024 Olympics. X^[2] user @mariahkreutter shared an early example at 10:34 a.m. EST on August 9th, 2024, attaching a screencap of Raygun pointing outwards with both fingers on the TV broadcast, captioned, "I could live all my life and never come up with anything as funny as Raygun, the 36-year-old Australian Olympic breakdancer," gaining over 32,000 likes in three hours (shown below).

Videos of her performance started to go viral on X in the following hours. For instance, on August 9th, X^[3] user @a_txcllctr87033 tweeted, "Raygun, I'm sure you're a sweet lady, but man… 😂😭," receiving over 11,000 likes in two hours (shown below).

Judges made the right call here because what was that move lol #Olympics #Breakdancing pic.twitter.com/sXAs9AdHjX

— MⓞNK BLOODY P👑s (@MonkeyBlood) August 9, 2024

Also, X^[4] user @MonkeyBlood shared a video of Raygun rolling around on the floor on August 9th, captioning it, "Judges made the right call here because what was that move lol," receiving over 4,600 likes in two hours (shown below).

Raygun, I'm sure you're a sweet lady, but man… 😂😭 #BreakingForGold pic.twitter.com/t95L8z2DyA

— A Tax Collector (@a_txcllctr87033) August 9, 2024

Viral posts on Reddit also surfaced amid the B-Girls competition on August 9th, 2024. For instance, Redditor^[5] forever-punk shared the abovementioned clip of Raygun's dancing to /r/olympics, writing, "Australia’s ‘Raygun’ wiping the floor with her competition in Olympic Breakdancing," gaining over 700 upvotes in two hours.

Internet users then discovered that Raygun was a professor and had a Ph.D., evident in a post shared by X^[10] user @focusfronting on August 9th, reading, "finding out she’s a phd in cultural studies focusing on breakdancing culture has left me maximally unsurprised," gaining over 5,000 likes in and two hours (shown below, left).

Others began captioning the video of Raygun rolling around on the floor that was originally posted by X^[4] user @MonkeyBlood. For instance, on August 9th, X^[11] user @lizchar captioned it, "What my nephew does after telling all of us to 'watch this,'" receiving over 13,000 likes in two hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References