Rachael “Raygun” Gunn became one of the most mocked athletes of the 2024 Paris Olympics after her kangaroo hop and sprinkler-inspired moves went viral. She even received zero votes from the judges, leaving many people wondering how she had made it to the Olympic stage in the first place. Now that Netflix’s documentary Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly is out, it has revealed that her husband and coach, Samuel Free, was involved in preparing those unusual moves. With that revelation, Free is now facing harsh criticism from fans over his role in the controversial routine.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
In the documentary released on September 1, 2026, Raygun comes across as an athlete who was painfully aware of how difficult the Olympic stage would be. Paris 2024 was not only her first Olympic Games, but also the first time breaking had been included as an Olympic sport. And preparing for that stage was far from simple, especially with Gunn relying heavily on her husband and coach, Samuel Free, during her preparation.
But breaking is a physically demanding sport that requires much more than simply dancing to music. A breaker has to combine several different types of movements, including toprock, downrock or footwork, power moves, freezes and transitions, while also showing rhythm, control and originality. That made Gunn’s challenge even harder. Although she had a background in dance, breaking has its own techniques and movements. Gunn also struggled with some of the foundations of breaking, including her toprock, footwork and floorwork.
Free, who was coaching Gunn, realized that she was not technically at the same level as many of the other Olympic breakers. With the Games getting closer, the couple had to find another way for her to make an impression. Instead of trying to match her competitors technically, Gunn and Free chose to focus heavily on creativity and originality. They looked toward Australian culture and began developing movements that would make her performance different from everyone else’s.
That was how the now-famous kangaroo hop, swimmer-inspired movements and lawn-sprinkler routine became part of Gunn’s Olympic performance. “It was the essence of creativity,” Free says in the documentary. The strategy certainly made Gunn stand out. And now, with the documentary showing how that strategy came together, fans are looking back at Free’s role and questioning whether he should have taken a different approach with his wife and athlete.
Raygun’s husband faces fresh backlash after Netflix documentary
“We also watched the doc about Raygun the Olympic breakdancer. I always thought she wasn’t really trying, but she trained for months! Just really crap at it. Her husband is ridiculous. Awful people.” one fan added.
The comment comes after years of speculation about how Rachael “Raygun” Gunn made it to the Olympic stage in the first place, with some fans even questioning whether her husband and coach, Samuel Free, had played a role in getting her there. But it was not Free who made the decision on Gunn’s Olympic qualification.
The qualification system is determined by the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) within the Olympic qualification system. Australia and New Zealand had their own dedicated Qualifier in October 27-28, 2023, in Sydney for the Olympic place in Oceania. Gunn competed and won it for a direct qualification to Paris 2024.
The judging process was also independent. The Oceania qualifier had nine international judges, along with a head judge and chairperson, and Free was not part of the judging panel. Despite later claims online that Gunn’s husband had helped influence her selection, there is no evidence that he had any role in deciding the result. The Australian Olympic Committee confirmed that Gunn had legitimately qualified after winning the event, with no appeals from the other competitors.
According to the documentary, Gunn trained intensely for months after qualifying. She had initially expected to have a wider support team around her, including specialists such as a strength coach and dietitian, but that support did not materialize as she had hoped. Instead, Free became the person helping her prepare for the biggest competition of her career. That made another fan say, “Raygun’s Husband (her coach) SABOTAGED her. Cannot convince me otherwise.”
Another viewer took an even more unusual view of the documentary, writing, “Holy sh-t 😂😂 the Netflix doco on Raygun and her husband is like some high brow, sustained Andy Kaufman bit. The absolute delusion cannot be real.” The comparison to Andy Kaufman comes from how surreal the story feels to some viewers.
For this fan, the documentary created a similar feeling. After seeing how seriously Gunn trained, how closely Free was involved as her coach, and how the pair arrived at the strategy behind her Olympic routine, the entire story can feel almost too bizarre to be real. That reaction is also tied to what happened when Gunn finally reached Paris. At the 2024 Olympics, she lost all three of her round-robin battles and received zero judge votes.
Another fan added, “An hour of pure gaslighting. One of the most beautiful performances was such a crazy delusion I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
For some viewers, that reaction comes down to the disconnect between Gunn’s background and what they saw in Paris. The documentary makes clear that she was not a newcomer who suddenly decided to try breaking once it became an Olympic sport. Gunn had been involved in dance from a young age and was introduced to breaking by Samuel Free, who later became her husband and coach.
She started taking it seriously around 2008 and was in the Australian scene for years. Her involvement in the sport was not just limited to competition. Gunn went on to complete a PhD in cultural studies specialising in gender and the breaking culture of Sydney. She had already competed for Australia in the World Breaking Championships in 2021 and 2022 when it was her turn for Paris.
That history is exactly why some viewers have struggled to understand what happened next. “It was surprising how little talent she and her husband have. They are an insult to actual break dancers. I’ve seen more talent in Times Square on my lunch hour. Delusional couple,” another fan wrote.
That decision gave the world the kangaroo hop, sprinkler-inspired movement, and other Australian-themed sequences that became the defining images of Raygun’s Olympic appearance.