Rachael “Raygun” Gunn has revealed she is back at work to make ends meet.
The divisive breakdancing sensation may have emerged from the Paris Olympics as one of the most talked about athletes on the planet — but her fame hasn’t yet converted into dollars and cents.
The widely held belief that the 37-year-old has been cashing in on her 15-minutes of fame has been busted with the viral B-girl saying she has agreed to only one endorsement deal following the Paris Games.
According to colorful celebrity management guru Max Markson, a recent promotion she launched with tech platform Finder would generally be worth around $50,000.
It comes after the Macquarie University lecturer, who holds a PHD in cultural studies, insisted she has not retired from professional breakdancing, despite saying she is “not going to compete any more.”
She has returned to her regular employment at the university in Sydney’s north.
“I’m still marking papers to pay the bills,” she said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.
“I have a whole stack to mark right now,” she says. “And I still enjoy research and being in the classroom.”
It is why she has been particularly picky in selecting the next projects she will pursue, having reportedly knocked back offers to feature on Channel 10’s “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.”
Gunn said reality TV does not interest her, but is comfortable featuring in live television formats.
“You surrender how you’re represented, and I feel I’ve already gone through that,” she said, referencing her experience at the Paris Olympics.
“I much prefer live television, panels and talk shows, where you can engage with the energy of people around you.”
Markson, however, believes Gunn still has plenty of options available to her.
“She has an enormous brand,” he told The Daily Mail.
“Her reputation in Australia isn’t that great, but she is famous across the world.
“She will get international offers from sports shoe brands, like Adidas or Puma, food companies like McDonald’s or KFC, electric cars like BYD, and she will get a phone company like Telstra or Optus or Vodafone.”
Gunn said last month her campaign with Finder struck a chord because of its message of challenging the public to “dance better than me.”
In an interview with Nova 96.9’s “Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie,” Gunn said of her Finder campaign: “I’m looking forward to seeing some amazing dancers we have around Australia.”
NOVA host Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzergald urged Raygun to “cash in” on her fame.
“I don’t care what anyone says,” Fitzergald said.
“If you’re in the position that you are, you went global, people know who you are.
“I don’t care what people say, you need to cash in on this. You need to monetise this, you do.
“This is your moment. If you do it the right way, I think anyone else would make the same decision. It’s a perfect thing to do.”
Reality TV was seen as a logical next step, but Gunn is not in a position where she needs to restore her public image — as is common for most celebrity contestants on hit recent reality TV shows.
“There was a lot of reality TV requests,” she said.
“No. Look, as someone that went viral for their performance on the Olympics, I think I’ve got a very memeable face, it’s very expressive, and I just feel like going on reality television is just not the right move.”
One of the projects she will continue to pursue is breaking — telling Channel 9’s Today Show this week she is “never going to stop.”
“So I was talking, you know, on 2dayFM about how I’m not going to do certain competitions anymore, which didn’t seem like such a big deal because breaking is not going to be in the Olympics (at LA 2028) any way,” she said.
“But you know, I’m still going to be part of community jams, or I’d like to go to community jams and still and still dance and still break – (I) never used the word ‘retire’.
“But, you know, it just caught on to the news cycle.”
Today host Sarah Abdo then interjected to ask: “So you’re not retiring?”
“I’m not retiring,” Gunn replied. “You try and stop me. I’m not ever going to stop dancing.
“So if you hear that again, you know that it’s not the truth.”
Gunn, went on to say that breaking was a “lifestyle” and that “you can’t retire from culture.”
“You can’t retire from an art form. so that’s why I’m never going to stop.”
Last week she told 2DayFM’s Jimmy & Nath for Breakfast she was “not going to compete any more”, citing the “level of scrutiny” she now faces.
Word of Gunn’s so-called retirement spread around the world last Thursday, with even the New York Times reporting that she had quit following the backlash from her controversial Olympic performance.
On Monday morning, she reflected on the three months since the Paris Games saying she was “doing much better” after facing an initial storm of criticism.
“It was really tough for a while there,” Gunn said.
”And getting used to this whole new world, this whole new reality.
“But I am doing much better. And honestly, the support has been amazing and the positivity and people reaching out to me has been really, really special.
”And that’s what I like to hold on to.”
