There is some bad news in the B-girl community as Rachael Gunn, better known as the infamous Olympic breakdancer Raygun, has reportedly lost her university job in Australia.
Macquarie University had employed Raygun as a lecturer in the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature. However, according to the New York Post, , the Australian Financial Review reported that the university included Raygun’s position in the latest round of redundancies.
The Australian Financial Review report claims that fewer international students prompted Australian universities to look for ways to cut costs. Macquarie’s Arts department was among the targets of a recent spate of layoffs.
A Macquarie University spokesman said they were unable to comment or confirm details about Raygun’s employment status due to confidential employment arrangements. A university spokesman said it was the school’s “standard practice for legal and privacy reasons.”
Her profile on the university’s website now reads “page not found.” According to Gunn’s LinkedIn profile, she worked at the school for more than a decade. She earned her Ph.D. with a thesis titled Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney’s Breakdancing Scene: A B-girl’s Experience of B-boying.
Rachael Gunn famously did not score a single point from the judges in any of her three breaking battles at the 2024 Summer Olympics, losing 18–0 in all three rounds. Somehow, despite her comical performance, Raygun still became ranked the World’s Number One by the World DanceSport Federation in September 2024.
After facing much criticism for her performances and the sketchy way she qualified for the Olympics, Gunn announced her retirement from the sport in November 2024.