Sign up to our free sports newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing.

Sign up to our free sports email for all the latest news

Sign up to our free sports email for all the latest news

Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn has clarified she is not retiring from the sport after saying last week she would no longer compete.

Gunn, also known as “B-girl Raygun,” went viral on the internet almost overnight in August after performing unusual moves at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including a kangaroo jump and a floor wiggle.

In an interview last week, she said the scrutiny and backlash over her performance at the Olympics led her to want to retire.

“I just had no control over how people saw me or who I was. I was going to continue to compete, for sure, but it seems really difficult to do it now,” she told local radio. 2 days FM. “I think the level of scrutiny will be there, and people will film it, and it will be posted online.”

“I still take breaks but it’s like in my living room with my partner,” she said.

However, in a new interview, she said she was not retiring and that her comments were taken out of context.

“It wasn’t a decision I made, it became a story. So I was talking, you know, about 2daysFM about the fact that I will no longer participate in certain competitions, which didn’t seem so bad because the break won’t be part of the Olympics anyway,” she said. on the Today to show Monday.

“But you know, I’m still going to go to community jams, or I’d like to go to community jams and still dance and break. I’ve never used the word retirement – ​​I’m not retiring.

“You try to stop me, I’ll never stop dancing so if you hear this again you’ll know it’s not the truth,” she said.

She said breaking was a “lifestyle” and “you can’t opt ​​out of the culture”.

“You can’t walk away from an art form. This is why I will never stop.

The 37-year-old Sydney university professor lost her three round-robin matches at the Olympics by a combined score of 54-0 and was ridiculed for her actions on social media.

Gunn’s performance prompted a petition calling for an apology from the athlete as well as Australian Olympic chef de mission Anna Meares. The petition received more than 50,000 signatures and ridiculed Gunn and Meares for “attempting to gaslight the public and undermine the efforts of real athletes.”

She called the reaction to her performance “devastating.”

“I would really like to ask the press to stop harassing my family, my friends, the Australian break community and the wider street dance community,” she said in an Instagram video at the time.

“Everyone has been through a lot because of this, so I ask that you respect their privacy.”