Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn has challenged the public to “do better than me” as the polarizing breakdancer cashes in on her fame.
Gunn sent social media into a frenzy with her breaking performance in Paris as the sport made its debut at the Olympic Games.
She came under fire for kangaroo hopping, doing the sprinkler, sliding around the stage and wearing Australia’s team kit instead of streetwear.
The subject of countless memes, Gunn became the subject of international ridicule and one of the biggest stories of the Olympics.
There was also widespread disbelief at how Gunn had qualified to represent Australia. She won the 2023 WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships in Sydney, earning the prize of becoming an Olympian.
Debate has raged since her performance where she failed to score in any of her three battles at the Olympics.
Despite vowing not to perform for a while, Raygun is back in the spotlight as part of what appears to be a lucrative sponsorship deal.
On Monday, comparison site Finder shared a video dubbed the Raygun Challenge, offering up a cash prize for the best breakdancing clip sent in by the public.
A joint Instagram post with Raygun read: “Think you can out-dance @raygun_aus? Here’s your chance to prove it #RaygunChallenge.”
“I’ve heard some of you can do better than me,” Raygun said in the video.
“Really? Let’s find out, shall we?”
She then dances to a beat of Finder’s “beat track” jingle, which punters must also dance along to in their dance video submissions.
“Think you can do better? Let’s find out,” Raygun said at the end of the video.
The best solo dancer will win $5,000, and $10,000 is up for grabs for the best dance crew of two or more people.
It’s safe to say the clip didn’t go down well in the comments, with many arguing she was milking her 15 minutes of fame, or infamy.
One person commented: “The real question is who cannot do better than this.”
A second said: “That really hurt to watch can u at least do a backflip or something.”
A third said: “Not that we think we can do better. As an Olympian we thought you would have done better!”
One commenter described Raygun’s latest dance as “cringe”, while another said: “There is no skill there, it’s very basic street dancing end of.”
Another said: “The whole thing was a stroke of genius on her behalf & she’s now the one laughing all the way to the bank!!”
But there were some comments expressing support for Raygun.
“Rather than blasting her give her some love,” one wrote.
Another said: “The truth is some will probably do better than her, but the fact is, she is using what she got to give back to the community. Haters gon hate, bboys and bgirls just participate.”
It’s doubtful we have seen the last of Raygun. Countless Aussies and Americans will dress up in the breakdancer’s green Olympics tracksuit for Halloween this week.
In September, Gunn apologised to the breaking fraternity, telling The Project: “I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced.
“But I can’t control how people react. Unfortunately, we just need some more resources in Australia for us to have a chance to beat world champions.
“I don’t think I’ll be competing for a while. Not really wanting to be in the spotlight, breaking, competing.”
Gunn, who has previously explained she wasn’t as capable of acrobatic flips as other breakers, told Stellar her age has became a lightning rod for criticism.
“Our culture is very obsessed with age,” the 37-year-old said.
“I think it’s been a real sticking point for a lot of people: me essentially not knowing my place, what I should be doing with my time at this age; (in their view) it’s certainly not participating in that environment, even though I wasn’t the oldest there.
“I had a few people tell me on Facebook and on Instagram what I should be doing … that I should be picking the kids up from school.
“I saw a great meme that was like, ‘The world is hard on silly women’, with a photo of me.” “Women aren’t allowed to be silly,” she added.
“But I think if I was a man, I would have very quickly been given the larrikin title and people would have rallied behind me a lot more.”
