"Weak": Raygun's tell-all interview divides audience
Raygun has finally faced the music after her disappointing Olympics performance, sitting down with The Project's Waleed Aly to share her side of the story from the breakdancing event in Paris.
Rachael Gunn, 37, represented Australia in the breakdancing competition at the Paris Olympics where she failed to score a single point, and her unusual routine quickly went viral around the world.
While some people, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, thought Raygun gave it her best try, others were quick to call her out for "making a mockery of Australia".
In her first exclusive tell-all interview since the Olympics, Raygun told Waleed Aly that the backlash to her performance had a huge impact on her mental health.
“I didn’t understand the scale of it,” she said. “I did preview some comments and I was like, ‘Oh, no’, and this kind of sick feeling started coming out. I was like, ‘Oh, goodness! What has happened?’”
“That was really wild,” Gunn said. “If people are chasing me, what do I do? But that really did put me in a state of panic for a while after that and I was quite nervous being out in public because I just didn’t know what was safe, if anyone was going to recognise me, how they were going to respond to seeing me."
“And it was pretty nerve-racking for a while there.”
She went on to say that the hate she received, both in person and online, took a toll.
“It was really sad, how much hate that it did evoke,” she said. “There’s been a portion of very angry and awful responses, not only attacking me but attacking my husband, attacking my crew, attacking the breaking and street dance community in Australia, my family. The energy and vitriol that people had was pretty alarming.”
Despite her candid answers on The Project, the interview as a whole divided audiences, as some viewers were unhappy with the style of interviewing, claiming Waleed hadn't gone hard enough on her and saying that Raygun is still not taking any accountability for "making a mockery" of Australia and hip-hop culture.
"Weak AF interview," one person raged on Facebook. "Just another absolute p***take by her and Waleed's questions."
"Of course it will be a Waleed interview. Let Steve Price ask her a few questions," someone else commented, with another agreeing, "Pity Steve Price didn't do the interview."
"No apology for making a mockery of the breaking hip-hop culture. And there are other female breakers who are much more talented," one person said. "She needs to apologise for taking the place of talented dancers. She’s an embarrassment that scored a zero. That has to be a first," someone else ranted.
Not everyone had a problem with the line of questioning, with some labelling Waleed as "kind and respectful".
"Very well done, and very kind interview. You asked some tough questions, and she gave some tough answers," one person said. "Bravo, Waleed, that was a wonderful interview. You were probing but also kind and respectful," someone else commended.
Image credits: The Project/Paul Kitagaki, Jr/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock