[theme music playing]
[music builds]
[ending sting]
[expectant music playing]
[Rachael] Sometimes this all feels like
a really… wild dream.
It just still feels surreal to me.
It's like I've been charged
with some crime.
What is happening?
What am I doing? What have I done?
What the f*ck did I do?
[music swells]
I can't just be
a meme.
So, I'm here in Taipei.
And this is my first time competing
since the Olympics.
And, you know, for it to be
on an international stage as well,
um, is… [chuckling] …is pretty huge.
[music continues]
[speaks indistinctly]
[Rachael] The stakes are high.
I have a lot to prove.
I'm just going to think
of those f*cking b*tches
-that are crying and moaning…
-[man chuckles]
[Rachael] …that think I'm a piece of sh*t.
Because at the Olympics, you know,
like, I went out there and performed,
and I didn't do as well as I hoped,
and then the world freaked out.
[music swells]
[commentator] And up next,
breaking makes its Olympic debut.
[emcee] All the way from Australia!
-Raygun!
-[crowd cheering]
[emcee] Bring it on!
[music subsides]
[all laughing raucously]
This is the best thing
that's ever happened to the Olympics.
[laughing] I have never been
so entertained.
[wheezing with laughter]
[laughter continues]
[Tinylocks] It was our worst nightmare.
[intriguing music continues]
Who could have imagined
it would have gone so wrong?
Yeah.
Shocked isn't the right word.
We were… devastated.
She became the most famous breaker
on planet Earth overnight.
[speaking Mandarin]
[speaking Hebrew]
[speaking French]
[speaking Chinese]
It was so weird. I just, like,
had this flash from, like, Paris.
And it just, like, totally triggered me.
I, like… [gasps] …totally freaked out.
I got like a flash in my mind…
[sobbing softly] …of Paris. It was awful!
[sobs]
[music intensifies]
[overlapping voices] Raygun. Raygun.
[man] She's trash!
[man 2] Like the worst sh*t
I've ever seen.
-[man 3] Raygun is [indistinct].
-[man 4] Don't be afraid to be different.
-[overlapping voices continue]
-[laugher]
-[voices speed up, intensify]
-[music swells]
[dramatic sting]
[Rachael] Right before the Olympics,
I went to my therapist, panicked.
She was like, you know,
"What's the worst that could happen?"
"The worst that could happen is that
the whole world could laugh at me."
She's like,
"Do you think that's reasonable?"
-[music stops]
-[laughs heartily]
["Battle Without Honor or Humanity"
by Hotei playing]
[air horn blaring]
[Sammy] When I first got into breaking,
I competed under the name Sammy Sex.
[cackles]
Um, but then I started emceeing,
like, kids-only events.
So I'm like, "Oh, it's a bit off to be
like, 'Yo, I'm your emcee, Sammy Sex!'"
[air horn blares]
Growing up,
I've always been interested in dancing.
But it was always seen
as a girl's activity.
And then one day I turned on the TV.
There was a hip-hop movie at the time.
-[spray can hissing]
-[Sammy] Breakin'.
And I'm just watching in awe.
Here's this art form that started off
in the boroughs of New York.
I said to myself, "This is incredible!"
They're like, "Okay!" [beatboxes] Bing!
I'm like, "f*ck yes, let's go."
They're doing big moves.
[imitates whooshing]
I didn't know people could do this.
-You owe me $7, man.
-What for?
For teaching you how to dance, sucker.
[Sammy] And I remember
trying to get up early in the morning
to watch the music video Countdown
so you can catch
Run-D.M.C. vs. Jason Nevins,
and we learned one more move.
Boom, boom. [imitates whooshing] Bang!
I was like, "That was nasty."
Breaking became my life.
[echoing] Just living the B-boy life,
straight up.
-[emcee] Sammy Sex!
-[cheering]
[Sammy] You know, I was still early 20s,
figuring out how to be in relationships.
One of the things that had kind of been
a sticking point was my breaking.
All my girlfriends would tell me, "Oh,
I didn't think you'd still be doing this."
They'd all say, "You need to be
more serious with your life plan."
I was like, "Okay.
Where's Sammy Sex gonna work?"
-[phones ring]
-[Sammy] Ooh! Inbound call center?
This is a whole new me,
thanks to Proactiv.
[Sammy] Proactiv solution,
all the phones light up.
You hear the "bip, bip." Boom.
"Well, why don't you add
the green tea moisturizer?"
[music ends]
[stirring music playing]
And then, this one shift,
I have a life-changing moment.
I remember walking past this girl
in the break room.
[Rachael] Sammy opened up my world.
[music builds]
He had this joyful laugh
that was kind of weird, like mine.
[both laughing heartily]
[Sammy] I said, "Oh, I do breaking."
And then she's like, "Oh, cool."
She's like, "Oh. What does that involve?"
[Rachael] At that time, I was at uni.
I was doing an arts degree.
I had no idea
what I was gonna do with my life.
I was lost.
And then one time he took me along
to a breaking battle.
You feel the humidity in the atmosphere,
speakers are blaring.
[imitates bass pounding]
[Rachael] Walking into this space
felt like I'd walked into a movie.
All of a sudden, I see this girl.
And she's just kind of chill,
just like watching, watching.
And then she gets down.
[sweeping music swells]
I was, like, "Wow!"
Girls could dance
the same way as the guys.
Or the guys could dance
the same way as the girls.
Gender wasn't important.
It wasn't relevant.
I found that really exciting,
having gone to an all-girls school.
[friend on tape] Rachael, say hi!
[giggles]
[Rachael] We were taught how to sit,
with our ankles crossed!
And I just suddenly found this space
where I could rebel against those confines
and really specific understandings
of femininity.
[stirring string music continues]
And then the thought pops into my head…
"I wanna be a B-girl."
[director] Did you ever associate the word
"Olympian" and Rachael growing up?
-[laughs]
-Never.
-Sorry. [laughs]
-Never.
-Sorry, not the right reaction, is it?
-[chuckling] No.
[bright music playing]
-[Russell, on video] Rachael?
-[giggles]
[Beverly] She was just
a normal, suburban girl.
[Russell] She was in the school orchestra,
she played the clarinet.
That's an unusual instrument.
She's just a bit to the left or the right.
[Beverly] She was free-spirited.
She was always dancing at home.
She really loved it, yeah.
From a young age,
she's been… been very determined.
She sees something, and she goes,
"I'm gonna have a go at that."
[Beverly] She did ballet first off,
then tap,
and then jazz.
[award announcer] Most improved
in senior jazz goes to Rachael Gunn.
[audience cheering loudly]
[Beverly] And she was just so comfortable
in who she was, dancing on stage.
Then she went into breaking,
and we're going, "What is that?"
The system called it breakdancing.
Molly Meldrum labelled it rap dancing.
We call it B-boying or B-girling.
In hip-hop, it gets big respect.
It's probably one of the most hardest
forms of dancing in the world.
-Rachael's going to cringe…
-[giggles]
…but we went to the first
breaking… breakering event or something.
It was a bit of a shock for us.
She's dancing on the floor. [laughs]
[Russell] You know, what is going on here?
We were scratching our heads
for a long time
going, "What was that?
What just happened?"
She started training with a g*ng, or team,
or I don't know. What's it called?
-Crew. [stifles chuckle]
-Crew, okay, crew.
[Rachael, on video] Liverpool Street
Familia at Uprock Park Jam.
[music fades]
#alldayeveryday.
[pensive music playing]
During this time, I ended up doing
a course on DJing and producing,
and the teacher was like, "If you want,
you can come up with a DJ name."
And a friend of mine, you know,
a fellow music student, was like,
"You should choose Raygun.
It's like your name, like, put together."
It just became who I am.
I'm a B-girl.
[music becomes intense]
-[woman vocalizing dramatically]
-[music ends]
I remember when she started breaking,
she was only like a year or two behind me.
Um, and I remember seeing her around. Um…
-Yep, I crossed paths with her.
-[director] What was that like?
Phwoah.
[curious music playing]
Um…
-Let me think about this.
-[director] Sure.
[Tinylocks] Here's the thing.
In my experience, to be a B-girl,
it's full-time training.
Like, in my time,
I was winning all the battles.
And I remember 2016 Battle of the Year.
[indistinct chatter]
Rachael has capability, in my opinion.
There were one or two times where
I was like, "Oh, yeah, that was fresh."
Maybe not so much the other times.
[curious music continues]
For me, personally,
I like to, like, be tight, clean, sharp.
[crowd whooping]
You know, that's style. It's steezy.
And so then, I beat her in the finals.
[crowd cheering]
[laughs]
But during my time, there was this kind
of, um… notion called "no easy props."
It was such a male-dominated space.
[cheering]
[Tinylocks] And B-girls
were really fighting to be seen.
But as more women
started entering breaking,
it was felt that some girls were getting
accolades too early in their career.
The crowd would cheer
just for participation.
They'd come to you later,
"That wasn't good. You were wack."
[chuckling] You know? I was like,
"I always have to improve."
So, with Rachael,
you have to pay your dues.
Like, I don't get no easy props.
-[Flix] I met Raygun 15 years ago.
-[music fades]
[intriguing music playing]
My B-girl name is Flix,
and it came from, I used to flick around.
I competed in Australia's
first B-girl battle.
I've seen the entire evolution
of B-girls in Australia.
[director] How do you describe
Raygun's style?
[smacks lips] So…
[chuckles]
This is a spiky question.
I mean, Raygun's always had a really
interesting, quirky, unique style.
It's different to how I dance.
It's different to how
a lot of other people dance.
I want to be clear that this is…
that I have no personal problem
with Rachael.
She was someone
who I considered a friend for 15 years.
But I feel like I need to share,
with her Olympic performance,
that I was offended by it.
I was embarrassed by it.
[music fades]
[Rachael] During this time,
I'd become so enraptured by this scene
that I was, like, you know,
"This is deserving of recognition."
[bright music playing]
There's not a lot of academic research
on breaking in Australia.
So, suddenly I was doing a PhD.
Never in a million years
thought I would do that. And there I was.
My advisor said that my thesis
was perhaps overly ambitious.
[laughs]
"Deterritorializing gender
in Sydney's breakdancing scene:"
"A B-girl's experience of B-boying."
[Sammy] When she got her PhD,
it was a lovely thing
because now we've got a shared interest,
and, you know, we can talk about it,
and we can bond over it.
[Rachael] I wanna think more deeply
about the philosophical possibilities
of breaking,
the creative possibilities of breaking.
My approach was quite interdisciplinary.
So I've got some cultural studies work,
some gender,
some, like, hardcore philosophy.
[Sammy] I mean, it was really impressive.
She worked hard.
[computer keys clacking softly]
[Rachael] Sammy was
my cheer squad, my fan,
my biggest supporter.
He's special.
You kind of… Makes you feel like
you can do things when you're around him.
[tender music playing]
[Sammy] And then I started
working as, like, her coach.
We've got the wonderful
Sammy Sex here tonight
that's gonna give us
a little bit of a warmup.
-[woman] Whoo! Yeah!
-[Rachael] Let's go!
[Sammy] It was just trial by fire.
She's like,
"I'm gonna do it, then figure it out."
[Rachael] We would research,
break,
compete.
Non-stop.
[Sammy] And then we trained
so much together.
Sometimes I was like, "Wait, I feel like
we, like, keep, like, going like this."
I was like, "Is this your style,
or is this my style?"
[chuckles]
[journalist] How do you
separate yourself from Sam,
who's got a very distinctive style?
-[Rachael] Mm.
-[journalist] Um…
So how do you separate yourself?
[sighs] I mean, it's kind of inevitable
that I move in a similar way to Sam
because he's been predominantly
the one teaching me.
I also, unsurprisingly, like his style.
He inspires me.
It's not something that's come to mind
that made trying to separate myself
from Sam, I guess, yeah.
But then it was, like, really exciting
because I finally started
getting some recognition.
[tender music continues]
People just did start calling me Raygun.
[emcee] I'm pretty sure you know
who this is, yeah?
-Dr. Raygun!
-[audience cheering]
[Sammy] We were building
our life together.
[Rachael] And our wedding
was so beautiful.
We were just so happy.
[tender music continues]
[music swells, then fades]
[anchor] Calling all B-boys and B-girls.
Dust off your parachute pants
and grab your Kangol hats. Breakdancing…
-Breakdancing.
-Or just breaking.
-[anchor] …became an official Olympic…
-[anchor 2] Olympic sport.
[triumphant music playing]
I was like, "What do you mean,
it's in the Olympics? Who did that?"
Why is breakdancing in the Olympics?
-It should not be in the Olympics at all.
-Breakdancing is a sport?
What… What the f*ck is going on?
People might think this is a joke,
breakdancing is going to be
a part of the Olympic Games.
-I'm a decorated breakdancer.
-Wow.
[triumphant music swells, then ends]
[director] So breakdancing gets announced
as an Olympic sport.
How does one actually qualify for it?
Yeah.
It was a big question mark over whether
we would get a qualifier for Oceania.
[reflective music playing]
And once it was confirmed,
this was a historical event, you know?
An Olympic qualifier
for breaking in Australia,
in Sydney.
[emcee] Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the Oceania Olympic Qualifier.
[emcee 2] You guys are part of history.
Give yourselves a round of applause.
-[crowd cheers]
-[emcee 2] So the winners of this,
the best B-girl and best B-boy from today,
will be representing Australia
in the Olympic Games.
[emcee] This is
a once in a lifetime opportunity.
[records scratch to a beat]
[Rachael] I was so nervous.
Because I woke up with a headache.
I woke up hot.
I woke up just feeling like crap.
[Sammy] I'd spent about a decade
teaching Rachael, giving her feedback,
especially if she…
[chuckling] …asked for it,
sometimes when she didn't ask for it.
But today was the culmination
of all of that.
[emcee 2] Yo! Put your hands together!
B-girls, thank you!
[audience cheering]
[Flix] I was at the end
of my breaking career.
[emcee 2] Flix vs. Hannah!
[Flix] I think I was 41 at the time.
I was kind of entering it just to go,
"Hey, if by chance I win this event,
I'm gonna be an Olympian."
Like, it was so crazy. [chuckles]
-[emcee] The winner is Hannah!
-[audience cheering]
[director] Were you competing at Oceania?
No. I wasn't interested in the Olympics.
[laughs]
I didn't care for it.
I cared about breaking as an art form.
For me, I do not dream
to touch the Olympic floor.
-[curious music playing]
-[emcee 2] Are you ready?
-Introducing to you Raygun!
-[audience cheering]
[emcee] Bring the fire!
[commentator] And there she is.
Massive moment for her.
[Beverly] She's an academic.
And she does breaking as her,
um… as her hobby.
But I thought, "She might have
a chance here. You never know."
"We're gonna go watch her."
We're gonna go and watch her.
I thought I was gonna go and console her.
[Rachael] I got through
the first two rounds quick.
[emcee 2] That's it.
That's Fizzy and Raygun.
Show us the brackets.
-[commentator] Raygun wins.
-Oh, she's got through.
[commentator] And that's another win
for Raygun.
[emcee 2] Raygun takes the first two.
[emcee] Yep!
-[Beverly] She's doing well.
-Doing well.
[both] She got through again.
[commentator] Raygun
is headed to the final.
[Rachael] I called Sammy over.
"If I keep performing like that
and they keep judging like that,
I'm gonna, like, sail through this thing."
And Sammy was like…
We have a shot. We've kind of
got the most experience here.
"Don't think too much about it."
"Just try and stay focused."
[sweeping orchestra music playing]
[emcee] We got the finals!
[audience cheering]
-We'll find out who's gonna go to Paris.
-[emcee 2] Yes.
So it's a three-round battle
for the final.
And the judges only reveal their scores
at the very end.
[expectant music playing]
[emcee] The final of the B-girls,
who you got?
[emcee 2] All right, on the red side,
we've got Raygun.
[audience cheering]
-[emcee 2] On the blue, we've--
-[emcee] We've got Molly!
[emcee 2] One more battle to go.
[hip-hop beat playing]
Rachael and Holy Molly have battled
a number of times.
They were like
the top two B-girls in Australia.
I told Rachael, "If she wants to win this,
she has to have,
like, supreme confidence and ego."
Fake it till you make it.
Like, I'm just going to be confident.
Like, f*ck it.
[Sammy] No one can touch you.
[emcee] Are you ready? Drop it!
[sweeping music playing]
[commentator] Lecturer at Macquarie's
Department of Media and Culture in Sydney.
-[emcee] It's Raygun!
-[commentator] That's her day job.
Oh, Raygun.
[emcee 2] B-girl Molly!
[commentator 2] Old school
versus the new school.
[commentator] It feels like Molly
has flipped a switch.
-[emcee] Yo!
-[crowd cheer]
[emcee] Let's go. Let's go, round two.
This is history right here.
I don't know how many Olympics,
how many times this is gonna happen!
[emcee 2] Let's go! Let's do it!
[commentator 2] A conversation
going on between the two.
I think Raygun feeling the challenge,
the heat.
[commentator] There's pressure at the top.
[commentator 2] Solid round from Raygun.
[commentator 2] This is insanely close.
[commentator] In a couple of minutes,
one of 'em is gonna go bananas.
They're going to Paris.
[commentator 2] Molly really picked it up
at the end of that one.
[emcee] Let's go. This is the last round.
[commentator] Comes down to this.
This is it. This is the moment where
you find out who's going to the Olympics.
[Rachael] Let's just
leave nothing on the table.
[emcee] Last, last, last round!
Come on! Come on!
Come on! Of the final! Of the final!
I was like, "Oh man, that was nasty."
I'm a little bit excited now.
She's taking it to her.
[sweeping orchestra music intensifies]
[audience cheering]
[commentator] And now, the results.
[emcee] On the count of ten!
[commentator] I mean,
this is as close as it gets.
-[emcee 2] Eight! Seven! Six!
-[audience] Eight! Seven! Six!
[Sammy] I'm standing off in the crowd.
She looks at me like, "How'd it go?"
-[emcee 2] …two! One!
-[audience] …two! One!
And I was like…
-[commentator] First round goes to Raygun.
-[audience cheers]
[emcee] Second to Molly! Oh!
[Rachael] Second round, Molly.
And so it came down to the third round.
[emcee 2] And the third round goes to…
-[commentator] Raygun, two to one.
-[audience cheers]
["Running Wide Open"
by Come Cinema playing]
♪ Traffic lights turning blue
Everyone that we burn through ♪
♪ Only me and you ♪
♪ Queen of booze ♪
I'm going to the Olympics? No.
I… [chuckles] Are you kidding me?
A hundred percent surreal.
I… It was like, "What?" [chuckles]
♪ The living room turns blue ♪
♪ We're both sleeping on the floor ♪
[audience cheering]
♪ I wanna be an engine ♪
[emcee speaks indistinctly]
♪ Running wide open ♪
♪ Running wide open… ♪
I said, "We're going to Paris."
And Russell's going, "Hang on a minute."
-This is pretty good. Impressive.
-[Beverly laughs]
[song bridge continues]
[emcee] And for the gold medal,
with a spot
at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
To the winner!
-B-girl, Raygun!
-[audience cheering]
From Australia!
[intriguing music playing]
[Sammy] I was just so, so proud of her.
And then all of a sudden,
someone starts calling for Rachael.
This person comes,
just, kind of, just appears.
And… And she's like, "Oh, we're taking
you… We're taking you for a drug test."
And she's like... "Oh."
[chuckling] I was, like,
taken immediately out to do a piss test.
[clap]
[Sammy] What's in that cup in your hand?
[Rachael] I'm just trying to hydrate,
so I can finish… [chuckles] …my drug test.
I was like, "Ooh.
We're not in Kansas anymore."
[laughs heartily]
[tranquil, bright music playing]
So, this is 1-4-3.
This is where I've been practicing
most nights a week.
This is a local courthouse.
And I kinda thought, in my naivety,
you qualify for the Olympics
and this big, like, team
surrounds you and gets you ready.
"Here's your strength and conditioning.
Here's your dietician."
"Here's your salary." [laughs]
"Here's your coach's salary."
[scoffs] I had nothing.
Well, when the Olympic Committee
introduced breakdancing to Paris 2024,
it opened its doors
to a new world of athletes.
And our next guest is grooving
into the history books. Hoo-hoo!
-Hello. Thank you.
-Congratulations.
-This is exciting.
-[Rachael] Thank you.
-[David] Your husband is your coach.
-[Rachael laughs]
[David] How is he preparing you?
We got nine months.
Let's try to map it out.
First thing, the Olympics are an entirely
different beast than we're used to.
This is a global stage!
So, what do these judges like?
Power moves.
You've got to understand, power moves
are bigger moves. They're very clear.
The really athletic moves
that you see breakers do.
So, the head spins, windmills, coin drops.
[Sammy] We need to start a strength
and conditioning program
to get stronger so we can do these moves.
All right. Let's talk to Lowe.
He oversees all the breaking in Australia.
I had to be a man of many hats.
[Sammy] He ran the Oceania qualifier.
He's in charge
of the breaking team in Australia.
Technically, he's your head coach.
Most importantly, he can get you
into a real Olympic gym.
[Lowe] You need a gym? I said, "Let's
communicate it to the Olympic committee,
give it to DanceSport."
They're like, "It's gonna happen." Sweet.
[Sammy] Third thing,
let's do a three-country tour overseas.
France,
Italy,
Cyprus.
We'll enter competitions, try out power
moves, and see how the judges respond.
But first, you need to train. You need
to train-train, like, until you bleed.
I was like, "All right,
you know, like, let's do this."
-["Extreme Ways" by Moby playing]
-[reporter] Good morning, Sydney.
We're just eight months away from
the Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Now, less than 1% of Australians have
been chosen to represent our country.
This is the best of the best.
[Rachael] The main thing
I need to do is get stronger.
It was just a whole new world
that I was in.
I'd never consistently been in the gym.
We trained on the street…
[chuckles] …at night.
And then suddenly, I had this strength
and conditioning coach,
and she was only available
from, like, 6:30 in the morning.
-[music stops]
-[alarm goes off]
I'm like, "Okay.
See you, honey." [chuckles]
[music resumes]
[Rachael] When I originally
started breaking,
power moves weren't really something
that I was encouraged to do.
Every time I started trying a power move…
f*ck! [groans, grunts]
f*ck. f*ck. f*ck!
…guys would come up to me and be like,
"Why are you bothering doing that?
Like, girls don't do power."
♪ Extreme ways are back again ♪
♪ Extreme places I didn't know ♪
♪ I broke everything new again… ♪
We had her doing deadlifts.
-I was doing pull-ups.
-[Sammy] So many pull-ups.
The sweat's pouring off her.
[together] Weighted push-ups.
[Rachael] I was doing plyometric stuff.
-Cardio as well.
-Landmine.
[Sammy] That helps
with shoulder activation,
so she can do those expl*sive moves.
[Rachael] It was intimidating
being in that gym,
because I was surrounded
by serious athletes
-who'd been doing this their whole life.
-[grunts]
And I was like, what am I doing here?
I think other people were like,
"What is she doing here?"
♪ Did you ever like it then? ♪
♪ I would stand in line for this… ♪
[frustrated groans]
[deep groan] f*ck a duck!
[Sammy] I was like, "As your husband,
I am, like, in awe
of how hard you're working."
"Props to you. As your coach, you need
to work harder. Like, this is not clean."
I'd go back, "As your husband, your coach
is being a little hard on you today."
[laughs]
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ Then it fell apart… ♪
[Rachael] I was getting stronger,
but I was still
pretty sh*t at power moves.
I went to other people for expertise.
I went to Taiwan, and Sammy stayed back.
[chuckling] I'm working six,
seven days a week so we can pay our bills.
In my breaks, I'm getting these,
like, videos texted to me
from her training sessions.
♪ It fell apart… ♪
I could tell power moves
don't fit with Rachael,
but she is earnestly like,
"I've got to make it work."
"Because this is
what's gonna score better."
I wanted to just be
the best that I could be
and make the most of this opportunity.
I wasn't going to give up.
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ Then it fell apart… ♪
[commentator] Welcome to
the Undisputed Masters in France.
We are less than three months away
from the Olympics.
Everyone is watching.
♪ Fell apart, it fell apart… ♪
[Rachael] So I go out there
for the first round.
-♪ Oh, baby, oh, baby… ♪
-[music stops abruptly]
And it just… It was like I was just
kind of going through the motions.
[music distorts, slows]
[plucky bass music playing]
[Sammy] Before we get the results,
I was like, "That worked well."
I was like, "I… I don't know
if it really, like, popped, but, like,
maybe this is what they're looking for."
I didn't make it past
the preliminary round.
[music becomes dramatic]
Afterwards, I'm just seeing the girls
that I was going to be competing
against in the Olympics.
[audience exclaiming softly]
They were in the semis or the final. sh*t.
That's when it first
started occurring to me
that I was going to go up
against, like, world champs,
people who'd been winning competitions
on big stages for years and years.
But, you know, I was still going
to go out there and… do my best.
[music ends]
First stop on this Euro testing trip
was a tough one, as my body still hasn't
recovered from the 30 hours of flying.
And I'm trying to incorporate…
[Flix] So I open up Instagram,
and I see this post.
[curious music playing]
I was really concerned.
That's not enough training
for the Olympics. Like, that… That…
That looked like she was not prepared.
She hadn't practiced her rounds.
The… She hadn't rehearsed them enough.
[Tinylocks] Yeah, I saw that post.
I thought, "It's just not looking tight."
It looked sloppy.
But
she kinda always was.
There was concern that, like,
her level maybe had dropped a little.
But on the comments underneath
that are like "Fire, fire, fire."
I'm not liking that post. [chuckles]
Like, you're not gonna catch
a like from me or a fake fire.
Like… no easy props.
I did reach out to Lowe and say,
"How is her training going?"
I was doing
a lot more administrative work.
In terms of Raygun's
training specifically,
I only was there assisting
a… a handful of times, I'm not too sure.
Less than ten sessions for sure.
You're the coach. [chuckling]
You're the head coach, sorry.
Sammy was her coach,
you're the head coach.
Maybe you should oversee what your team
is putting on the Olympic stage.
[music ends]
[plane engine whooshes]
[intriguing music playing]
[Rachael] After that first competition,
things just got worse.
Our flight got cancelled, so we missed
qualifying in the next competition,
which was a huge bummer.
And so then there was
only one competition left in Cyprus.
[emcee] Ready for the next battle! Yeah!
[Rachael] And… the stress
really started to come on.
[Sammy] I'm watching, thinking,
"That's not gonna be ready in time,
that doesn't hit,
that doesn't hit, that doesn't hit."
I could kind of feel it, or maybe
I was imagining it. Who knows?
But people in the crowd were like,
"Really, that's the Australian?"
Like, "I thought she'd be better."
I start thinking,
"I wasn't getting better quick enough,
I wasn't getting that move quick enough."
"I should have that move by now,
I should be training longer, harder."
[emcee] Three! Two! One!
-[emcee speaks indistinctly]
-[crowd cheer]
[Sammy] So Rach has another bad finish.
We're two months out,
and there's this, like, looming pressure.
And you know, "Okay,
that's the date we're working towards,
and, like, that's when it's… all of it's
gonna be out there up for display."
-Please welcome Rachael.
-[cheering]
[Rachael] And on top of that,
I had to do all this media.
-Rachael joins us in the studio.
-She is part of history.
Dr. Rachael Gunn.
Raygun!
-[host] Whoo! [chuckles]
-[cheering]
[Sammy] There's a lot of expectations
on her results.
The breaking community behind us
is invested. Australia's invested.
[together] Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!
Oi! Oi! Oi!
[reporter] We are nearly two weeks away
from the Olympics.
Rachael, welcome back.
Good to see you again.
-Thanks for having me back.
-[reporter] Our pleasure. Not long to go.
How are you feeling?
I'm, you know, getting excited.
The closer we got to the Games,
the more and more there were questions
around if I was going for gold.
You know? "You going for gold?"
[reporter 2] Can Raygun go for gold?
Maybe even win a medal.
-In a green and gold trackie, mate.
-In a green and gold trackie.
I kinda knew, I was like,
"You're talking a big game,
and you've got a quirky style,
like, you're kinda setting yourself up
to fall from grace."
It's risky, you know, it's risky.
[slow, pensive music playing]
-[thud]
-Phwoah!
[panting]
[Lowe] I actually didn't really see her
much at all in the last… month or two.
-Like, I… I don't think I saw her.
-[audience laughing]
[Lowe] When I did see her,
she didn't have to physically
show it on her face or anything,
but I could already sense that
it's like, "This is a losing battle."
You're training to lose.
[Sammy] There's physical exhaustion,
like, for sure,
and then, like, cognitive exhaustion,
emotional exhaustion.
[Rachael] So I started
seeing a sports psychologist
and went on antidepressants
because I was like,
you know, "People are just not going
to understand what I'm doing."
[man] Un, deux, et trois.
[Rachael] Hi, I'm Rachael Gunn,
aka Raygun.
Breaking for Australia.
Want me to do the step again,
or it's good?
[promo producer] "Hi, I'm Rachael Gunn,
aka Raygun, breaking for Australia."
[exhales] Uh, breaking for gold,
Australia.
[director] Why didn't you guys just quit?
I mean, I think,
um, yeah, I… I don't like to
have regrets, and I think I knew
that, deep down, if I walked away,
I would've regretted it more
and that would've haunted me,
rather than going through
whatever happened. [chuckles]
-[announcer] For the first time ever…
-Let's go, Aussie!
[announcer] …breaking
at the Olympic Games.
Live on Nine.
I mean, we had an Olympian as a daughter.
It was just so exciting.
[chuckling] I couldn't believe it.
Okay, reality check.
Beverly wasn't well enough to travel.
[intriguing music playing]
[Beverly] I was found to have
three brain aneurysms.
[Russell] First surgery was supposed
to be straightforward, couple of hours.
It wasn't straightforward.
Neurosurgeon said, "That was a time b*mb."
So the first surgery
was life-saving surgery.
Uh, the second surgery
she got through a lot better.
They were operated on two weeks apart,
and they were very major surgeries.
We were, as far as I was concerned,
we weren't getting on a plane.
[Beverly] I didn't want Rachael to worry
because she had the Olympics coming up.
So I didn't want to say to her,
"I'm not well enough to go."
I'm… I didn't want her thinking,
"Oh, I should be home with Mom."
But I had to be there to see it.
[music fades]
[light switch clicks]
[Sammy] So it had become obvious to us
that we weren't even going
to win one battle at the Olympics.
A realistic want was probably
if we could just, like, nab a vote.
Like, all we need is one judge
out of the nine to vote for Rachael.
That's a win for us.
[expectant music playing]
We need to rethink our routine.
[Rachael] Sammy would be like,
"Why are you doing this to yourself?"
"You're a good dancer."
Why don't we take the thinking
behind this routine
and try and find something
that was a bit more true to me.
We're kind of more of a different side
of the history of breaking.
[Sammy] We gravitate more
towards creativity than the other stuff.
You need to have your own style.
You need to be recognizable.
Uh, you need to have original moves.
You need to contribute something.
[Rachael] It's not always about
the most athletic movement.
It's about the art.
[Sammy] I said to Rachael, "What if we get
inspiration from Australian culture?"
I was like, "Australia does really well
at the swimming."
"Can we do a swimming-inspired travel move
as we're going across the stage?"
[imitates whooshing]
And then later on,
we'll do another grab like that,
and we'll thematically tie it in there.
I was like, "Okay.
The judges might love that."
I started doing some research
and found this dance move
that was born in Australia,
has gone worldwide.
You know, it's a bit cheesy,
but it's a bit of fun.
You join in, and everyone
can have this shared moment.
[Rachael] He was so good at supporting me
and just reminding me that I could do it.
[Sammy] And finally,
we need a big finish move.
Something to create an impact.
So there's this old saying in breaking
that moments make battles.
[music starts building]
Sometimes something so spectacular happens
that changes, transforms the whole view
of the battle, your whole experience.
[woman vocalizing]
[Rachael] We were messing around
with moves one day,
and Sammy has this freeze
where he grabs his leg, and he goes back.
And he's like, "What if you did that,
but we add
a little Australian flourish to it?"
And I was like,
"Oh, my gosh, that's wild."
And he's like… And I was like,
"That is so sick, but, oh…"
[blows air]
[triumphant trumpet music playing]
[announcer] Welcome to Paris,
where the eyes of the world have turned
and where years of planning
have culminated in this night.
[host] Australians have turned up to Paris
with 460 athletes.
[Rachael] At the opening ceremony,
the atmosphere in the air was positive.
You don't get many opportunities
to go to a place
where everyone's, like, feeling good
and happy to be there.
It was exciting.
[audience cheering]
[host 2] Australia, aren't they happy
to be on the boat?
That is the Aussie team,
here to make some noise,
try and break some records.
-Keep an eye on them, in Paris 2024.
-[music ends]
[heroic music playing]
[narrator] Every great story needs
a setting that is worthy of it.
A place where the most
extraordinary things
happen to those who refuse
to accept what they cannot do.
Who will be the one
to write their name into history?
To reach new heights?
-To return home a hero?
-[audience cheering]
Welcome to Paris.
Welcome to the games of the 33rd Olympiad.
[music swells, then ends]
[breathing audibly]
[expectant music playing]
Bonjour. I'm in the Village.
Getting ready! I'm getting pumped!
I'm feeling good, feeling excited.
And, yeah, just wanted to share an update.
Um… Can't believe it's almost here.
Someone said to me, "The first time
you're in the Village, it's overwhelming."
But I was in such a stress.
I'd gotten lost.
Sammy wasn't allowed to be with me.
And I didn't know
where the Australian building was.
And I'm just walking through,
and everyone's in their sports uniforms.
I felt like an imposter.
Now everyone's kind of looking at me.
"Who is this woman,
and what the f*ck is she wearing?"
And it immediately felt like
I was in that movie Inception.
This was so totally bizarre and foreign
to anything that I'd ever been in.
[music intensifies]
And I finally spot some Australians,
and I kind of follow them.
Then, this guy
from the Olympics team comes out,
and he was like, "Hi, you made it,"
and I just burst into tears in his arms.
[chuckles]
And I just could not stop crying.
And he's like, "You're safe, it's okay."
And I'm just, like, crying and crying.
You know, my knees were shaking.
I could not stop crying!
I was trying to stop, and I couldn't.
I had a panic attack.
"What am I doing? What have I done?"
"What am I doing here?
Should I be doing this?"
[music fades]
-[slow, rhythmic breathing]
-[tranquil, meditative music playing]
-[man] Breathe in.
-[Rachael inspires]
-[man] Breathe out.
-[Rachael expires]
So, I was walking over to the arena,
and I stopped at this gym.
-[man] Breathe in.
-[Rachael inspires]
-[man] Breathe out.
-[Rachael expires]
And I found this room
I'd never seen before.
It was really quiet. It had soft music.
There were all these beanbags around.
And you could put on this,
like, virtual reality headset.
There was a voice
kind of walking me through.
[man] Good morning.
Being ready
for the Olympic stage isn't easy.
We want to prepare you.
Breathe in.
-Breathe out.
-[Rachael expires]
I was walking out into the stadium.
You are literally walking down a path,
and there were people there.
[cheering]
[Rachael] I started to tell myself,
"You are here."
"You are here. And that's what matters."
[music continues]
I remember thinking to myself, "Wow,
like, I'm actually going
into the Olympics with excitement."
Part of that excitement was, like,
I get to have this amazing experience,
and the other part of the excitement was,
it's gonna be all over.
[laughing] It's going to be over
after today!
[Sammy] It was such a relief
it was finally happening.
You know, this is it. And…
You know, I'm just trying to remain calm.
And I'm, like, constantly
reminding her to remain present.
Reminding her to feel confident.
I told her, "No matter what happens,
you're a f*cking Olympian."
[music becomes bright, then fades]
Bev still was not well enough to travel,
but we handled it together.
And… She's my best mate
and my loving partner… [voice cracking]
And, um… she still is, that's great.
And we went to Paris and we had, um…
Oh, we didn't have a good time, did we?
[both laugh heartily]
[intriguing, percussive music playing]
[host] Wherever in the world
you are watching from, welcome.
We are in the magnificent
Place de la Concorde.
Today, breaking has made its way to Paris
to take its place
in the pantheon of Olympic sports.
[audience cheering]
[Joey Kaotyk] Everybody's here
for breakdancing, dude.
What the…?
[indistinct radio chatter in French]
-[man] Raygun! Raygun!
-[child giggles]
[Flix] It was, like,
midnight Australian time.
I was so excited to watch her compete.
-So I stayed up and was watching it live.
-[cheering]
[chuckling] I'm in the dark,
and I got all these screens.
I had Twitter open,
and hashtags were starting to trend.
Rachael didn't have a chance
at the Olympics,
but she could still represent really well.
[plane engines roaring]
[cheering]
-[engines revv]
-[audience cheers loudly]
Holy sh*t! Holy sh*t!
I'm in the f*cking Olympics! For breaking!
Samuel Free joins us to talk us through
this new sport in the Olympic movement.
Is it possible
we see an Australian competitor
bust out an iconic dance move
at the Olympics?
-Look, anything's possible.
-[laughs]
There's a lot that goes on
in the moment there.
We're not going to give away
any secrets, uh, at the moment, pre-comp.
Uh, but keep your eyes peeled. Yee-hoo!
[chuckling]
[chuckling] "Yee-hoo" indeed!
We are counting down the minutes
for the breakdancing to get underway.
[emcee] It is time for les trois coups
to launch the competition.
[Rachael] The next thing I know,
I found out that Sammy
was not gonna be on the floor with me.
I'm, like, way up in the stands,
quite far away.
It's bright,
the middle of the day, it's hot.
It's Paris in summer.
I was like, "This is not great."
It was gonna be Lowe on the floor with me.
[Lowe] I couldn't believe I was at the
Olympics. I was like, "Wow, this is cool!"
"Sweet!"
[commentator] Introduction
of the athletes has begun.
These are 17
of the best B-girls on the planet.
I was backstage with all the B-girls
and, like, Snoop Dogg's there.
We got this selfie with Snoop Dogg,
and it was crazy!
[camera shutter clicks]
It's just a real mindfuck.
[cheering loudly]
[indistinct announcement in French]
[commentator 2] Snoop Doggy!
[chuckles] This is amazing.
[commentator] We have the traditional
"coup de bâton."
Three taps of the baton
signaling to the audience
that the show is about to begin.
-[thud]
-[audience cheers loudly]
[commentator] And with that,
breaking can officially begin.
[intriguing music continues]
Now to our first battle.
Representing Australia, Dr. Rachael Gunn,
champion from Oceania.
[emcee] All the way from Australia,
give it up.
[speaking French]
Raygun!
[audience clapping]
[emcee] Respect to the DJs!
Respect to the DJs!
[record scratches rhythmically]
-[commentator] The battle is underway.
-[air horn blares]
[commentator 2] Oh, pencil halo, tap mill.
[emcee] Whoo!
Phwoah! Voilà!
Logistx!
[commentator] Just a bit of interaction.
-Now it's the Australian's turn.
-[emcee] Raygun, break it down!
Yeah!
[commentator 2] Raygun giving us
some interesting transitions.
[emcee] Whoo! Yeah! Yeah!
[commentator] We'll see
where the judges go.
[Rachael] So the first battle finishes,
and they have all the votes
being tallied up on the scoreboard.
You're standing there, watching.
[audience exclaiming]
[emcee speaks in French]
[commentator 2] And unanimously,
it is Logistx.
[commentator] Eighteen votes to zero.
I thought maybe I'd get one vote
or something, but, you know, whatever.
[commentator] A commanding victory
for the 21-year-old.
As soon as she goes off, I, like,
race down steps, down the bleachers, down.
Let's debrief as quickly as we can.
What's the plan, make sure
we know what we're doing next.
I was like, "I was gonna do that combo,
I changed my mind."
-He was like, "You're doing…"
-"Great. Got that in your back pocket."
It was hectic. [chuckling] Like…
"Any feedback?" I was like, "Oh… You look
like you're moving a little slow."
"Slow." And I was like, "Oh, sh*t."
[chuckles] Why am I so slow?
The second battle against Syssy
was a complete blur.
[emcee, muffled] Syssy!
[Rachael] I have no idea
what happened there, how that went.
[audience cheers]
[emcee] Yeah. Whoa! Whoa!
[emcee] Syssy!
[commentator 2] The judges
have decided Syssy,
with a commanding 18 to nothing battle.
[tense music playing]
So I hadn't got anything against Logistx.
I hadn't got anything against Syssy.
I was going up against the world champ.
[commentator 2] The world champion.
She's only 17 years old.
[emcee] B-girl Nicka!
-[intense percussive music playing]
-[cheering]
[person] There you go, Nicka!
-[announcer] B-girl Nicka. Championette.
-[music ends]
-[cheering]
-[commentator 2] B-girl Nicka.
I was like, "What the f*ck?"
[tense music playing]
But this was my last chance
to win one vote.
So f*ck it.
We've kinda got a ace up our sleeve.
[man signing eerily] ♪ Do your thing ♪
[Sammy] This was Rachael saying,
"I'm gonna give you a moment."
♪ Don't give up ♪
[Rachael] I talked to Sammy in between,
and he was like, "You got this."
♪ Do your best ♪
[commentator] We move now
to Raygun from Australia.
[Rachael] I said to Lowe, "I'm gonna
do some weird stuff this round."
He was like, "Sick."
[piano introduction begins]
[Lowe] She shows me a little preview.
And then I was looking at it like…
[music stops]
[discordant music resumes]
[Sammy] This is Rachael's moment.
It's her saying, "I'm doing me."
[commentator 2] University lecturer
by day, B-girl by night.
["Do Your Thing" by Moondog playing]
♪ Do your thing ♪
♪ Be fancy-free
To call the tune you sing ♪
[folksy, slow-tempo piano music
playing over footage]
♪ Don't give up ♪
♪ That's not the way to win a loving-cup ♪
♪ Do your best ♪
♪ And opportunity will do the rest… ♪
[Flix] I remember
my jaw, like, dropping.
"Oh, my God."
♪ Don't give in ♪
♪ Capitulation is the greatest sin… ♪
I was, like, struck
by the beauty of her performance.
♪ Do what's right ♪
♪ What's right for you
To do with all your might ♪
♪ Don't regret ♪
♪ What might have been you might… ♪
[Tinylocks] Almost immediately,
like, Twitter started to swell.
[delicate piano continues]
I think by about 1:30 a.m. our time,
I saw the first meme.
[distant, raucous laughter]
[Lowe] I was there side stage.
I had to not have a face of shock.
♪ Learn to wait… ♪
[Flix] If you're getting smoked,
don't yawn at the multi-world champion
that's in front of you
as though they're boring.
[Tinylocks] And then
she starts hopping around…
♪ Make amends ♪
♪ All enemies… ♪
[Sammy] At one point she does
this beautiful spin and grabs her cap.
And I was like,
"Oh, that was really nice."
I was like, "If you just, as you come in,
if you put the other hand out,
that's the sprinkler."
[piano bridge continues]
It was the essence of creativity.
[Flix] I didn't expect to feel angry,
but I was furious.
[Rachael] The sprinkler,
the kangaroo, and the swimming,
it was all about representing Australia,
celebrating Australia on the world stage.
It was the best performance
I've seen her do.
I knew, I said to friends,
"She's gonna need psychological support."
[Rachael] At the end, I was just so happy
it was all finally over.
Yeah, I f*cking did it.
[chuckling] Like, I did it!
I'm glad I got to witness that.
[song ends]
[light switch clicks]
[commentator 2] And the results are in.
B-girl Nika dominates, 18 to nothing.
-[audience cheering]
-[emcees speaking indistinctly]
[Rachael] So, I walked off stage,
and I'm, like…
[pants] You know, catching my breath back.
And, um, I think, you know, I see Sammy,
and I see the media advisor and everyone.
You know, the media advisor's like,
"Just let me know when you're ready, uh,
and… and we'll go, talk to the press."
"But you take your time."
But the adrenaline was coursing through
me! I was like, "I can go now. Whatever."
Like, "Let's go!"
He's like, "Just so you know, there's
something brewing on social media."
We're like, "What d'you mean?"
He's like, "Some people said something,
something about your uniform mostly."
And then we're, like,
kind of even more confused. [chuckles]
He tells me maybe just disable my account
or go offline for a few days.
It'll blow over by the weekend.
We're like, "What do you mean?" [laughs]
-[reporter] Excuse me, miss?
-[street hubbub]
Raygun?
Have you got a message for the people
who've been writing stuff online, guys?
Do you think people have been unfair
about your performance?
[Rachael] That was when I realized
there was this real kind of frenzy.
[reporter 2] Breaking! It made its Olympic
debut, and Rachael Gunn has gone viral.
-D'you see that lady from Australia?
-The G.O.A.T. took the world by storm.
A nation cries out for you, Raygun.
[reporter 2] ♪When the pimp's
In the crib ma ♪
♪ Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot ♪
I was like, "Oh, no."
"I'm a meme."
Every social media platform
was kicking off.
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.
Text messages, WhatsApp messages.
It was this growing monster.
[man] I don't think she's the best dancer.
-She is not.
-But she's f*ck' vibin', baby!
She's a legend.
How did this person go to the Olympics?
And then from there…
-[podcaster] Doc?
-Dr. Rachael!
-Hold on!
-The degree wasn't doin' enough for you?
[dramatic music playing]
[TMZ narrator] That's Olympic
break dancer Rachael Gunn!
[laughter]
-[announcer] A laser to left field!
-[commentator] New, different.
[man 2] She's doing the kangaroo,
that was the kangaroo.
[Sammy] Everyone's doing the kangaroo.
What's happening?
And then our friend texts us.
"Adele talked about you at her concert."
-[music stops]
-What?
-Did anyone see the break dancing lady?
-[audience laughs]
I think it's the best thing that's
happened in the Olympics the entire time.
What is happening?
[newscaster] Raygun has been
on a meteoric rise to stardom.
[commentator 2] Athlete
of the century already.
[WWE announcer] Raygun!
[Rachael] And then I get sent
a little skit on Jimmy Fallon.
Raygun! How are you feeling
since your performance?
Me? You want me to dance with you?
All right, I can do that! That's…
-[audience cheering]
-[Rachael] I was like, "Oh, my God."
The Raygun fan who got a tattoo of
the Olympian's now-famous kangaroo pose.
I told her, "You need to just pull back,
and then everyone'll calm down."
What was your take on Raygun?
I was sitting next to Bam Adebayo.
We looked at each other,
and we was like, "Oh, my God."
[laughter]
[speaking Chinese]
[Rachael] 250, 300 million people
are talking about me,
have an opinion about me.
[woman] She scored zero points.
A score of zero.
-Zero points.
-Zero points?
[Rachael] Some of the memes were funny.
Then the tone started to change.
-[voices] Clown show. Embarrassing.
-[Rachael] I'm a joke.
-Stupid idiot.
-That was [bleep] sh*t.
Nobody in her life
ever told her that she sucks at this.
It's like a pinball machine.
Boom, boom, pow!
[man 3] Raygun was my 9/11.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Someone teach me how to breakdance,
I could f*cking beat her.
[Rachael] We would just be thrown around.
Something else would happen.
-Get the f*ck out of here!
-Here's the reason why she's a b*tch.
-[man 4] That's sad.
-[indistinct voices]
[man 5] Raygun.
People just have a lot of opinions
about what women do, what women should do.
Sometimes from women.
This Raygun situation
has actually got me so heated.
-Everyone thinks she's a d*ck, right?
-She's a f*ck' embarrassment.
It really saddened me to see
how many women just decided to hate on me.
It was a hot topic talking point
to just rip into me.
[voices] She can't even put makeup on.
f*ck off.
-[woman 2] You're still alive?
-[voice] Dumb, white b*tch.
[woman 3] You're a disgrace to all women.
We kept thinking,
"It'll be over by tomorrow."
"Oh, it'll be over by the weekend."
"It'll be over by the end of the Games.
Oh, it'll be over by this…"
You know, and it just kept getting
an extra gust of wind through it.
All right, just checking the sound
of this video. Just seeing how this works.
And I'm just gonna be
moving my head a little bit.
Hi, everyone. Just also checking this one
to see what this frame looks like.
I was like, "I… I need to
try and put a stop to this."
-[Sammy] Rolling.
-Okay.
[tense music playing]
Hi, everyone. Raygun here.
I'd really like to ask the press to please
stop harassing my family,
my friends,
uh, the Australian breaking community.
We thought it would die down
after that. [laughs] Like…
[chuckles]
[woman 4] The updates with
the breakdancing lady from Australia
are actually insane.
So there is now a very real petition
to try and get her to be investigated.
[woman 5] What you might not know
is that this breakdancing
is actually one
of the lesser of Rachael's crimes.
Because Rachael Gunn basically
cheated her way into the Olympics.
Guess who runs the organization
that managed the Olympic qualifications?
Raygun…
Then proceeded to deny funding
to competing breakdancers.
She competes in that contest
and coincidentally wins
and goes to the Olympics.
She's just another privileged lady,
who pushed others down to elevate herself.
[Rachael] Next thing I know, it was Sammy
getting drawn
into these conspiracy theories.
[dramatic music playing]
[woman 6] This was all a scam.
This man, known as Sammy Sex,
rigged the competition,
so his wife could be an Olympian.
This f*ck' c**t.
The way she got into the Olympics.
Her… Her husband
is the head of the committee.
And then had her husband be a judge
at the, like, qualifiers for the Olympics.
-[man 6] Her and her husband cheated.
-Her husband was the…
[man 7] Her husband took on the roles
of both judge and coach.
-…rigged by her and her husband…
-[voices overlapping]
…was on the panel of judges.
…potent and blatantly biased benefits
from her husband.
[man 8] …husband, Sammy Free,
set up Australia's
national breakdancing governing body.
[Sammy] This misinformation
is getting a lot of traction.
I was like, "People are not even doing,
like, basic, like, Google due diligence."
-Speaking of rigged, Raygun.
-[audience laughs]
You were worried that they would
find out. Now they have.
It's so fabricated, but I think they
see it as like, "Oh, my husband coach."
And that was enough of a, like,
"Well, there's something more here,
definitely something more."
I don't know why you think.
You know nothing about anything.
I wasn't a judge.
I was never on any selection committee.
[unsettling, percussive music playing]
I saw the conspiracy theories.
They're inaccurate.
Everything was just… made up.
Sammy wasn't in charge of anything.
I ran the entire qualifying event.
I mean, all the judges were international.
And the reality is our community doesn't
have that many B-girls to begin with.
To be clear on that, the top Australian
B-girls were at that event.
And on that day, the day of Oceania,
she was the best B-girl on that day.
There was nothing
that I could do that, you know,
would… would... please people.
So… I started doing these video diaries.
[soft music playing]
I just made them for myself.
Um…
Yeah, just…
[voice breaking] …struggling
at the moment.
[exhales]
And I don't know why. [exhales]
[sniffles]
Uh...
I'm nervous about being so exposed.
You know, I was cringe.
I was cringe. I brought shame
and embarrassment… on the country.
Um…
Yeah.
[sucks teeth]
Yeah, that was rough. [chuckles]
Today's a bit of a rough day.
[smacks lips] Um… [smacks lips]
I managed to go downstairs
to the chemist by myself
and… get my meds.
[solemn sting]
I felt like… my whole life,
uh, was just kinda crumbling before me
in a way that I never anticipated.
And I… I was just trying
to get through the day.
[pensive music playing]
The anxiety is… is real.
And I don't even know sometimes
what it's about specifically.
[smacks lips] Um…
So, just waiting for these new meds to,
um, kick in.
Be nice…
so I cannot feel like this every day.
[Sammy] It wasn't certain
that we would get through it.
Like, it was, like, a massive trauma
and, like, people don't get through that.
[Rachael] I think our… really down part
was when we were in the Netherlands.
I felt like I was falling into a dark pit.
We didn't see her for about two months
because she laid low in Europe.
We kept a healthy distance
until we had one phone call,
and it was so good to hear her voice,
just so good to hear her voice.
I was feeling all right on this day
in the Netherlands,
so I was like, "I'll call them."
-"How are you, darling? How you going?"
-Yeah.
That's all. Just, "How you going?"
He was crying on the phone to me
saying, "But why you?"
"Out of everyone that was there, why you?"
'Cause he knew how hard I worked.
I just said,
"Look, Dad, it's not personal."
You know, I knew it wasn't personal.
People didn't… People don't know me.
-"Take care of yourself. Thinking of you."
-"And is Sam with you?"
"And, is Sam looking after you,"
and that kind of thing.
"We wish we could…" [voice breaking]
"We wish we could hold you."
[pensive music continues]
[Rachael] I realized,
my life as I know it is… is over.
And then one afternoon,
I got this weird email from a guy
that says he's with Richard Branson,
and he'd love to talk to me.
[music becomes brighter]
But the reality of the situation was,
this could be a hoax.
[imposing rock and roll music playing]
["Take me Home" by Cheetah Chrome playing]
I was the person
that brought the world the Sex Pistols…
-…group called the Sex Pistols.
-You dirty f*ck.
[laughter]
♪ …seen me lay
This place on my knees… ♪
…The Rolling Stones,
Boy George, the Spice Girls.
Anyway, all... all sorts
of artists that were nonconformists.
♪ But the sidewalk is spinning… ♪
[Branson] Being a nonconformist
is often not easy.
But in my opinion, the world needs
to be made up of original thinkers.
♪ I'll tell it again, I wanna go home ♪
[song ends]
[Branson] I happen to be surrounded
by six kangaroos where I live,
uh, in… in… in the Virgin Islands.
-[intriguing music playing]
-I happened to have the TV on.
I was watching the Olympics,
and I saw Raygun doing her kangaroo bit.
I looked out of the window,
and there were the six kangaroos
hopping around outside my living room.
In my opinion,
she did something extraordinary.
She tried something completely original.
She stood out from the crowd.
A couple of days later,
I started reading this, uh, vitriol.
[man] She embarrassed the whole country.
[Branson] And I said I'd like to have
a chat with her on the phone,
and we managed to track her down.
[intriguing music continues]
[Rachael] All of a sudden,
my phone starts ringing.
It's like, "unknown number," and
she's like, "Okay." Puts it on speaker.
[Rachael] He just goes,
"Hi! It's Richard!"
And he said, you know,
he really enjoyed my performance.
He thought it was joyful and
-plucky and courageous.
-[Branson] …plucky and courageous.
[Rachael] And he's been thinking about
something fun to do for me to go back home
with a smile on my face.
[Branson] The idea was that maybe
we could change the narrative a bit.
[Rachael] Next thing I know,
Sammy and I are on a cruise
with Sir Richard Branson.
[Sammy] When we met him,
Rach stands up to introduce herself.
[Branson laughing]
[Sammy] He goes down on his knees
like he's bowing to the Queen.
[Rachael] Brilliant. Oh, my.
What f*ck world am I living in?
-[emcee] Raygun, everybody!
-[audience cheering]
[Branson] So Raygun's a breakdancer,
and she's one of the best dancers
in Australia.
-The kangaroo.
-[Rachael] Oh, yeah.
[audience laughing]
[Branson] I think by the end of the trip,
she'd let her hair down,
and she felt ready
to go home to Australia,
ready to face the critics.
[Rachael] And ready and stop!
That was a lifeline, to be honest,
because it really kept me grounded.
And I knew I could get through this.
[people cheering, whooping]
[music fades]
[Rachael] It's been about
a year and a half since the Olympics.
[emcee] Let's go! Let's go!
Let's go! Let's go!
["Unstoppable" by Sia playing]
So, yeah, I mean,
it's been a journey since Paris.
Like, I couldn't even really break…
to begin with.
[indistinct]
[Rachael] I've been doing
little gradual pushes this whole way.
And today my goal is
just to dance in front of people
and to show them what happened
after Paris hasn't defeated me.
I know for sure
I'm never gonna stop dancing.
Time to be a big, brave girl
and, you know… [laughs]
And, like, let's do this!
♪ Yeah, yeah, I'm unstoppable ♪
♪ I'm a Porsche with no brakes ♪
♪ I'm invincible♪
♪ Yeah, I win every single game ♪
♪ I'm so powerful ♪
♪ I don't need batteries to play ♪
-♪ I'm so confident ♪
-[audience cheering]
♪ I'm unstoppable today… ♪
[Rachael] So it was cool to come here
because there's creative breakers here.
They love to go out
and be a little bit wacky and have fun.
Like, listen, I know I'm a dorky,
white woman who's an academic,
and I'm okay with that.
♪ Hiding out deep down ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ I know I've heard
That to let your feelings show ♪
♪ Is the only way
To make friendships grow ♪
♪ But I'm too afraid now ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
-[audience cheering]
-[emcee] That's some Australian energy!
[Tinylocks] Rachael had started
re-emerging and coming to events.
And yesterday we had a chance crossing.
[music continues]
I go, "Hey, are you okay?"
And she was like, "Yeah, I'm good."
I'm like, "No. Like, are you?"
She was like, "Yeah,"
and I go, "I wanna talk to you."
[music builds]
I told her I was most offended
at the sprinkler.
Because everything else you can explain
within the technicalities of breaking.
Then she said to me, "Yes, the sprinkler
is a quintessentially Australian thing."
And I was like,
"No, it's not, it's a joke."
-Pause there.
-[music stops]
So I go home, and I go look it up.
-She's right.
-[music resumes]
♪ I'm unstoppable ♪
♪ I'm a Porsche with no brakes… ♪
I didn't think I was
as patriotic as I was,
but the Olympics
just kind of brings that out in people.
♪ I'm so powerful… ♪
We always wanted
to make the country proud.
♪ I'm so confident …♪
[Sammy] Her performance
connected with people.
Whether that's genuine excitement
and entertainment, or, you know, outrage,
it generated discourse
and got the entire world talking.
♪ Today, I'm unstoppable today ♪
So fast forward. It's Halloween.
All the trick-or-treaters are out.
I look ahead, and I was like,
"Babe, look! Oh, my God."
♪ I'm unstoppable today… ♪
I was like, "There's Rayguns." [cackles]
♪ Show you how strong I am… ♪
[Rachael] I'd watch these videos online
and realize, people were doing it
to have fun and celebrate.
♪ I'll show you that I am… ♪
[Sammy] When we got more distance from it,
a much greater portion of it
was more positive than we realized.
[Rachael] I keep a folder on my phone
that says "Positives."
Some of the memes
just made me laugh so much.
♪ I'm unstoppable
I'm a Porsche with no brakes… ♪
It made it all worth it.
-Would you please welcome Raygun?
-[audience cheering]
-[Karl] The legend herself, Rachael Gunn.
-Hello, Rachael.
[Karl] Is it true you're dancing again?
Uh, try and stop me.
I'm not ever gonna stop dancing.
[Sarah] Come on!
-[Karl] Dance, Jayne. There you go.
-[Jayne] That's good.
[Rachael laughing]
The truth is,
it just still feels surreal to me.
I'm still figuring out who I am now.
-♪ I'm unstoppable today… ♪
-Am I Rachael?
♪ Unstoppable… ♪
Or Raygun?
[Karl] Before we go, Rachael, what's next?
What's next on the horizon?
[Rachael] I'm just gonna keep trying
to inspire people…
-[chuckles] …to be their authentic selves.
-Yeah.
[Rachael] So, I recently made the decision
to leave my job in academia.
And, yes, I'm excited for what's next.
[song fades]
I'm open to…
where this journey may take me.
[host] I'm pretty sure you know
who this is, yeah?
-Make some noise for Raygun!
-[audience cheering]
[intense electronic music playing]
[music fades]
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