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Controversial Australian Olympic breaker Rachael Gunn retires from competition

AP

Thursday, November 7, 2024 11:51AM

SYDNEY – Australian breaker Rachael Gunn has told a Sydney radio station that she plans to retire from competition just three months after her unconventional routine at the Paris Olympics led to her being ridiculed and spawned conspiracy theories about how she qualified for the Games.

The now 37-year-old Sydney university lecturer failed to get on the scoreboard in all three of her competition rounds in August, with a routine that included unorthodox moves such as a kangaroo hop.

Gunn had initially planned to keep competing but said the experience had been so "upsetting" that she changed her mind.

"I just didn't have any control over how people saw me or who I was," she told radio station 2DayFM. "I was going to keep competing, for sure, but that seems really difficult for me to do now. I think the level of scrutiny that's going to be there, and people will be filming it, and it will go online."

Breaking was being contested at an Olympics for the first time . And it might be a one-and-done, not scheduled on the Olympic program for Los Angeles in 2028 or for Brisbane, Australia in 2032.

Continued at site…

https://abc7ny.com/post/paris-games-2024-controversial-australian-olympic-breaker-rachael-gunn-retires-competition/15522654/