Who is Raygun, the Australian break dancer?

Breakdancing has first appeared at the Olympic Games, and social media has loved it. One of the most viral contestants is 36-year-old Australian Rachael Gunn, or Raygun, whose style and moves have captured the hearts of millions and the ire of millions more. No one makes it to the Olympics without dedicating their life to their passion, and Raygun, originally from Sydney, is no different.

Raygun was knocked out of the round-robin stage with zero points from the judges during her Olympic debut. However, this will not deter her from her passions. Though she is being berated for her performance and has been subject to hate, she says she will keep her head up. The Guardian reported that after her elimination, she remained positive, saying, “Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

And while many of the competitors she faced have spent much of their lives break dancing, Gunn only began competing in his mid-20s.

The double life of Racheal Gunn

Now that Gunn will return to Australia, she will continue leading what her country’s Olympic committee described as a “double life.” Aside from her passion for breakdancing, Gunn is a professor at Macquarie University. She earned a PhD in cultural studies, focusing her research on break-dancing culture in Sydney. She teaches in the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Literature, and Language, and her research focuses on “the areas of dance, performance, media, autoethnography and post-structuralist and feminist theory.”

Shortly before heading to Paris, she spoke about what it was like to be a full-time academic and a person on her way to the Olympic Games.

“I feel like my bag always has two main things,” said Raygun. What are those two things? Her knee pads and her laptop. A perfect description of the life she leads.

Although she returns to Australia empty-handed, the experience will undoubtedly inspire her to continue pushing and allow for new perspectives to inform her research.