Raygun Finally Speaks Out About Going Viral: B2 Reading

Level: B2

Printable: Student handout (PDF) | Teacher’s key (PDF)

Reading

In August 2024, breaking made its Olympic debut in Paris, and one of the competitors was a 36-year-old Australian university lecturer named Rachael Gunn. Competing as B-girl Raygun, Gunn had earned her place by winning the Oceania qualifying event, and she had written a PhD on breaking culture. In Paris, she performed an unconventional routine that included a “kangaroo hop” and a move called the sprinkler. She lost all three of her battles without receiving a single vote from the judges. Within hours, clips of her routine had gone viral.

What followed was a wave of mockery. The comedian Rachel Dratch parodied the routine on The Tonight Show, and the singer Adele stopped one of her own concerts to talk about it. Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, praised her for trying. Then the pile-on moved from jokes to accusations. An anonymous online petition, which gathered more than 45,000 signatures, claimed that Gunn had manipulated her Olympic selection. The Australian Olympic Committee’s chief executive, Matt Carroll, said the petition was “vexatious, misleading and bullying,” and it was taken down. Three months after the Games, Gunn told a Sydney radio station that she would no longer compete. She said that the scrutiny would be too intense, because people would film her and post the videos online.

Why did one short routine attract so much attention? Research on online behavior offers part of an answer. In a 2023 study in Nature Human Behaviour, Claire Robertson and colleagues analyzed about 105,000 headline variations tested by the news site Upworthy. Because readers saw different headlines for the same story at random, the researchers could measure cause, not just correlation. For a headline of average length, each extra negative word raised the click rate by about 2.3 percent. A 2021 study in PNAS by Steve Rathje and colleagues found that posts about political opponents were shared about twice as often as posts about the writer’s own side. Together, these studies suggest that platforms which reward engagement, meaning likes, shares, and comments, create incentives to post content that attacks or ridicules someone. Neither study examined sports memes, however, so applying them to Gunn’s case is an inference, not a direct finding.

Online hostility also tends to fall on a small number of people. World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, worked with the data company Signify Group to monitor the social media accounts of 1,917 athletes and officials during the Paris Olympics. Of more than 355,000 posts that were analyzed, 809 were verified as abusive. Just two athletes received 82 percent of that abuse, a disproportionate share by any measure. The study covered athletics, not breaking, and it did not include private messages, so the real amount of abuse was probably higher.

Gunn believes that her gender played a part. She told CNN that women athletes faced extra scrutiny because of their gender. The evidence makes this claim plausible but does not settle it. At the Tokyo Olympics, 63 percent of the abuse that World Athletics detected was aimed at two female athletes, and almost a third of the abuse it verified at Paris was sexual or sexist. However, the same four-year study reported that the gap between women and men had narrowed by the Paris Games.

Two years after Paris, Gunn is telling her own version of events. In the Netflix documentary Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly, released on September 1, 2026, she recalls visiting her therapist just before the Games because she feared that “the whole world could laugh at me.” In an interview with CNN before the film’s release, she said going viral had felt surreal and had left her with a sick feeling of dread. She explained that therapy and time had helped her process what happened, and that Paris was now “just a part of my story.” She also admitted that when she finally watched the routine again, it was less embarrassing than she had expected.

The research can explain how a clip spreads, but not what the people sharing it think about the person in it. In the writer’s view, most people who shared a kangaroo-hop meme probably saw it as harmless fun, and a single post may well have been harmless. What no single sharer could see was the total. Researchers have not yet tested whether platforms that ranked posts by something other than engagement would produce smaller pile-ons, or simply different ones.

Vocabulary

Each word has a frequency score, a rank, and a tag. The score shows how common the word is in modern English: higher means more common, and each full point means roughly ten times more common. The rank is the word’s position on a list of about 321,000 English word forms, from most to least common. The tag shows where you are most likely to meet the word: Current, Formal, Literary, or Dated. The paragraph number shows where the word first appears in the reading. The labels are information, not instructions. Deciding which words are worth your time is up to you. How to read the scores, ranks, and tags.

Her unconventional routine included a kangaroo hop.
The chef is known for unconventional combinations of flavors.

Within hours, clips of her routine had gone viral.
The video went viral after a celebrity shared it.

What followed was a wave of mockery.
He tried to ignore the mockery and focus on his work.

A comedian parodied the routine on a late-night show.
The students parodied their teacher’s favorite phrases in the school play.

The online pile-on moved from jokes to accusations.
After one bad review, the restaurant faced a pile-on from strangers.

An anonymous petition gathered more than 45,000 signatures.
Local residents signed a petition asking for a new park.

The petition falsely claimed that she had manipulated her selection.
Investigators found no evidence that the results had been manipulated.

She said the scrutiny would be too intense to keep competing.
The company’s finances came under close scrutiny after the scandal.

Platforms that reward engagement may push angry posts to the top.
The museum’s short videos had much higher engagement than its photos.

Likes and shares create incentives to post angry content.
The city offers tax incentives to companies that hire local workers.

Only 809 of the posts were verified as abusive.
Before we publish the story, every quote must be verified.

Two athletes received a disproportionate share of the abuse.
The punishment seemed disproportionate to such a small mistake.

The evidence makes her claim plausible but does not settle it.
He gave a plausible excuse, but nobody really believed him.

She said going viral had felt surreal.
The whole trip had a surreal, dreamlike quality.

Therapy and time helped her process what happened.
It can take months to process a difficult loss.

Activity Page

Open the activity page in a new tab

Speed Challenge

Answer 12 questions against the clock. Every wrong answer adds 5 seconds, and the lowest score wins. Open the speed challenge in a new tab.

Shadow Reading and Typing: The Clip I Shared

This short text uses many of the words from this lesson. Use it for shadow reading (reading aloud along with a model) and for typing practice.

In August 2024, I watched a clip of Raygun’s Olympic breaking routine on my phone and laughed. It was so unconventional, with its kangaroo hop, that I sent it to three friends. By the next morning, the video had gone viral, and everyone seemed to be joining in the mockery. Comedians parodied her, and I kept sharing the jokes.

I did not think about the person behind the clip. Then the jokes turned into a pile-on. An online petition claimed she had manipulated her Olympic selection. The Australian Olympic Committee rejected it as bullying. A few months later, she said she would stop competing because the scrutiny would be too intense. That news made me feel uncomfortable.

Later, I read about why negative content spreads so quickly. Some studies suggest that platforms reward engagement, so users have incentives to post things that ridicule others. In one study of Olympic athletes, just two people received a disproportionate share of the verified abuse. It seems plausible that something similar happened to her, although that research did not look at breaking.

In a recent interview, she said going viral had felt surreal, and that therapy and time had helped her process what happened. I am glad she seems to be doing better. My single share was probably harmless. But I now understand that I could not see the total, and that thousands of small jokes can land on one real person.

How to practice

Read the text silently once and check any words you are unsure of.
Read it aloud slowly, one sentence at a time. On the typing page, the Listen button reads each line with your device’s voice, so you can listen first and then repeat.
Shadow: read aloud again at a natural speed, trying to keep a steady rhythm without stopping.
Record yourself, listen back, and note one sentence to practice again.
Type it on the typing page below and check your speed and accuracy.

Open the typing practice in a new tab

Comprehension Questions

Who is Rachael Gunn, and how did she qualify for the Paris Olympics?
How did public figures respond to her routine?
What did the anonymous petition claim, and how did the Australian Olympic Committee respond?
Why did Gunn decide to stop competing?
What did the Upworthy study find, and why could it measure cause?
What does the World Athletics study show about how online abuse is distributed?
What is Gunn’s claim about gender, and how strong is the evidence for it?
How has Gunn described the experience two years later?
The writer says “no single sharer could see” the total. What does this mean, and do you agree?

IELTS-Style Questions

True, False, or Not Given: “Most of the headlines in the Upworthy study contained at least one negative word.” Explain your answer using evidence from the reading.
Yes, No, or Not Given: “The writer believes the research proves that social media caused the mockery of Gunn.” Explain your answer using evidence from the reading.
Author’s purpose: Why does the writer include the World Athletics study, even though it did not cover breaking?

AI Discussion Prompt

I just read an article about Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, the Australian breaker whose 2024 Olympic routine went viral, and about why online mockery spreads. It covered the jokes and a false petition about her selection, a study showing negative words in headlines increase clicks, a World Athletics study finding that most online abuse falls on a few athletes, her claim that women athletes face extra scrutiny, and how she describes the experience two years later. I am an English learner at about B2 level. Please ask me one question at a time, starting with whether I had seen the Raygun memes. Respond to my ideas first, then briefly correct any language errors, and ask follow-up questions that make me explain my reasoning.

AI Vocabulary Prompt

I want to practice vocabulary from an article about the Olympic breaker Raygun and why online mockery spreads. Please quiz me on the following words one at a time, using a mix of question types: multiple choice, true/false, and sentence completion. Give me feedback after each answer before moving on, and bring back the words I miss later. Here are the words: unconventional, viral, mockery, parodied, pile-on, petition, manipulated, scrutiny, engagement, incentives, verified, disproportionate, plausible, surreal, process.

Discussion Questions

Before reading this, had you seen any Raygun memes? What was your first reaction?
Have you ever shared a funny clip of a stranger online? Did you think about the person in it?
Is there a difference between laughing at a performance and laughing at a person? Where is the line?
What kinds of posts get the most likes and shares among people you know?
Do you click more often on negative headlines? Why might that be?
Gunn stopped competing because people would film her. Would you keep doing something you love under that kind of scrutiny?
Should sports organizations protect athletes from online abuse? What could they realistically do?
Should petitions on public websites be checked for false claims before they are published?
Do you think women in sports or public life are judged more harshly than men? What examples can you think of?
Why might online hostility fall on just a few people rather than spread evenly?
If social media platforms stopped ranking posts by engagement, what might change? What might they rank by instead?
Is it fair to blame one person for sharing one post, if thousands of others did the same?
Gunn made a documentary about her experience. Can telling your own story after a pile-on change how people see you?
Some people say public figures must accept mockery as part of the job. Should the same apply to an amateur athlete?

Language Focus: Reported speech (tense backshift)

What it is: When we report what someone said with a past reporting verb (said, told, explained), the verb in the reported clause usually moves one step back in time: will becomes would, is becomes was, and past simple or present perfect becomes past perfect.

Why writers use it: This reading reports what several people said at different times: Gunn in 2024 and 2026, and the head of the Australian Olympic Committee. Noticing the tense shift helps you see that the words belong to a speaker at a past moment, not to the writer now.

Examples from the reading:

“Gunn told a Sydney radio station that she would no longer compete.” (will → would)
“…Matt Carroll, said the petition was “vexatious, misleading and bullying,” and it was taken down.” (is → was)
“…she said going viral had felt surreal and had left her with a sick feeling of dread.” (felt/left → had felt/had left)
“She explained that therapy and time had helped her process what happened, and that Paris was now “just a part of my story.”” (has helped → had helped; is → was)

Practice task: Change the direct speech into reported speech: “I am not going to compete any more,” Gunn said.

(Example answer: “Gunn said (that) she was not going to compete any more.”)

Recommended Resources

After Lots of Therapy, Raygun Is Ready to Talk (CNN (David Mack), via KEYT). Gunn describes going viral, the false cheating claims, and why she thinks her gender added to the scrutiny.
Raygun Opens Up on Her Infamous Olympics Breakdancing Debut (The Irish Times). A short news report on Gunn watching her routine again, two years after Paris.
Raygun Retires from Competitive Breakdancing after Paris Olympics Backlash (Al Jazeera). The November 2024 news that Gunn would stop competing, with her reasons in her own words.
World Athletics Publishes Ground-Breaking Four-Year Analysis into Online Abuse (World Athletics). Key figures on online abuse of athletes at two Olympics and two world championships.
Negative Words in News Headlines Generate More Clicks, but Sad Words Are More Effective than Angry or Scary Ones (Nieman Lab). A clear explanation of the Upworthy headline study and what kinds of words attract clicks.