Raygun realized before Olympics that she was out of her depth as husband details her 'exhaustion'
Two years on from gaining viral fame at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Raygun has spoken out about her preparations for the games.
While there were many talking points from the last summer Olympics, one of the biggest was that of Raygun, real name Rachael Gunn.
She became the center of a media frenzy after competing in the breakdancing event, which saw her busting out some rather unconventional moves.
On top of that, she lost her three first-round battles by a total score of 54-0, as hundreds of memes appeared online.
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Gunn has now opened up about the experience in the latest instalment of Netflix's sports scandal docuseries Untold, in an episode titled Raygun: Breaking Badly.
The athlete admitted that the response to her Olympics performance had been 'pretty devastating', as she detailed her preparations for the sporting event.
Gunn said she hadn’t worked out regularly prior to preparing for the Olympics, so spent the nine months before the games trying to get in to shape.
With her husband as her coach, Gunn soon realized she was out of her depth.
"It had become obvious to us that we weren’t even gonna win one [dance] battle at the Olympics," Samuel Free, her husband, said on the Netflix show.
As per Page Six, Free and Gunn set a more 'realistic' goal of getting just one vote of the nine judges, which unfortunately, they didn't manage to do.
Free detailed in Netflix's Untold that his wife was dealing with 'physical exhaustion, cognitive exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion' in the months leading up to the Olympics and that she was prescribed antidepressants to help manage her symptoms.
Two years on, Gunn is still 'saddened' by the whole thing.
"It really saddened me to see how many women decided to hate on me. It was a hot topic talking point to rip into me," she said.
There was even conspiracy theories online that Free - who met Gunn while they were both at university in 2008 - was part of the Australian Olympic Committee and allegedly rigged his wife's entry.
However, Free has shut down such speculation.
"This misinformation is getting a lot of traction," he said in the doc. "I wasn’t a judge. I was never on any selection committee."
Though Free admitted that he was 'struck by the beauty of her performance' and called it the 'essence of creativity'.
Gunn announced her retirement from dancing in November 2024 following the 'really upsetting' response to her Olympics debut.
Speaking on the Jimmy & Nath Show, she said: "I was going to keep competing, for sure, but that seems really difficult for me to do now, to approach a battle.
"I mean, I still dance and I still break but, that's like in my living room with my partner."
Despite her retirement, the Olympian began appearing at dance events again in 2025.
"I know for sure I’m never gonna stop dancing," she declared.
Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly is available to stream on Netflix now.
Callum Jones