Rachael Gunn's Olympic Journey: Coach's Admission of Minimal Involvement

Australian Breaking Association president Lowe Napalan has admitted he was barely involved in training embattled Olympic breaker Rachael Gunn in the lead‑up to the Games, revealing a fractured preparation that played out under the glare of a global stage.

Napalan, who also doubled as national head coach, said the heavy administrative workload tied to Australia’s Olympic campaign dragged him away from hands‑on coaching. Speaking in a new documentary, as reported by the Daily Mail, he explained that his direct role in Gunn’s training was minimal.

“I was doing a lot more administrative work. In terms of Raygun’s training specifically, I was only there assisting a handful of times,” Napalan said, estimating he attended fewer than 10 sessions.

The admission underlines just how disjointed Gunn’s Olympic build‑up became. In the crucial final months before Paris, Napalan said he had little contact with her and did not see her full routine until shortly before she stepped out to compete.

When he finally watched it from the side of the stage, he says the routine caught him off guard. In the episode, Napalan recalls being surprised by what he saw and struggling to hide his reaction as Gunn performed under the Olympic spotlight.

With the national coach largely occupied elsewhere, much of Gunn’s preparation fell to her husband, fellow breaker Samuel Free. He oversaw the bulk of her training, an arrangement that would later sit at the centre of a storm.

Once the Olympics were over, Gunn and Free found themselves under intense online scrutiny. Critics challenged their credentials and pushed conspiracy theories suggesting they had somehow manipulated the qualification process. The couple strongly deny those allegations in the documentary.

Gunn, competing under the name Raygun, does not pretend she arrived in Paris as a favourite. She said she knew before the Games that she lacked the technical arsenal to trouble the world’s elite breakers, yet the idea of walking away never truly took hold.

“I don’t like to have regrets and I think that I knew deep down if I walked away, I would have regretted it more,” she said.

She chose to stand in the arena, fully aware of the gap between her and the sport’s powerhouses, and has since worn the backlash that followed.

The criticism has been fierce, but it has not driven her out of the scene. Gunn says she remains committed to breakdancing and plans to keep competing, determined to stay in a culture that has now tested her resolve as much as her skill.