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Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn speaks out after Paris Olympic performance: “I gave my all”
Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn, also known as B-Girl Raygun, is speaking out after she received criticism and ridicule for her viral performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In an Instagram post Thursday, she broke her silence.
“I really appreciate the positivity, and I’m glad I was able to some joy in your lives,” she said. “That’s what I hoped. I didn’t realize that would open the door to so much hate, which is frankly, been pretty devastating.”
“I went out there and I had fun,” the 36-year-old breaker said. “I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics, and I gave my all.”
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Gunn, a professor from Sydney who holds a PhD in cultural studies, lost all of her three round-robin battles with a score of 54-0, drawing backlash for the lack of points and mockery over some of her moves in her routine, including a “kangaroo dance.” It was even made fun of on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” She responded to some of her critics.
“Bit of a fun fact for you,” she said. “There are actually no points in breaking. If you want to see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, you can actually see the comparison percentages across the five criteria on Olympics com. All the results are there.”
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She also drew questions over how she was selected to represent Australia.
The Australian Olympics Committee came out in defense of Gunn on Thursday, condemning a anonymous petition on Change.org that demanded an apology from her and Australia’s chef de mission, Anna Meares, for their “unethical conduct” in choosing Gunn. The AOC said Gunn was selected to the Australian Olympic Team through a “transparent and independent qualification event and nomination process.”
“It is disgraceful that these falsehoods concocted by an anonymous person can be published in this way. It amounts to bullying and harassment and is defamatory,” AOC CEO Matt Carroll said in a statement.
As of Thursday afternoon, the petition was no longer live on the site.
The committee pointed out that Gunn held no position within AUSBreaking or DanceSport Australia — two entities that oversee competitive breaking in the country — in any capacity.
Accusations were also aimed at Gunn’s husband and fellow breaker, Samuel Free. The AOC said Free doesn’t and was not a judge at the qualifying event.
Breaking made its Olympic debut in Paris and won many fans. However, the sport did not make it onto the roster of sports for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
The House Ethics Committee, which has been conducting an investigation into sexual misconduct and obstruction allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, scheduled a vote for Friday on whether to release its report, according to three sources with knowledge of the committee’s work.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Gaetz to be attorney general, Gaetz resigned his congressional seat, effective immediately.
“I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress, to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” Gaetz said in his resignation letter obtained by CBS News
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that there was about an eight-week period during which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his seat by setting the date for a special election.
Now that Gaetz has resigned, it is unclear whether the panel will vote on releasing the report, since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
There is precedent in Congress on the Senate side for an ethics committee report to become public after a member resigns from Congress, however. In 2011, this happened when Sen. John Ensign of Nevada resigned amid allegations that he tried to hide an extramarital affair.
But it’s not clear that that would apply to the House, leaving open the possibility that the report on Gaetz would not be released.
In June, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it was investigating a range of allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery.
Multiple sources at the time told CBS News that four women had informed the House Ethics Committee that they had been paid to go to parties that included sex and drugs, and that Gaetz had also attended. The committee has Gaetz’s Venmo transactions that allegedly show payments for the women.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has called the committee’s investigation a “frivolous” smear campaign.
Some of the allegations of sexual misconduct under review by the committee were also the subject of a previous Department of Justice probe into Gaetz. Federal investigators sought to determine if Gaetz violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws, but no charges were filed.
The House Ethics Committee resumed its investigation into Gaetz in 2023, following the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against him.
Gaetz has long blamed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, also a Republican, for the probe. And Gaetz later led the movement to sack McCarthy as speaker.
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