Grab the Boom Box! Breaking Is Coming to the Olympics, and I Am Here for It
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games will kick off on July 26, 2024, and this year there’s a brand new non-traditional sport on the schedule. Breaking, or breakdancing as it’s better known, makes its Olympics debut for the first time since the sport originated in the Bronx in the 1970s.
Many of us picture street dancers dressed in 1980s neon headbands doing spins on a piece of cardboard as a boom box blasts beats nearby, but the Olympic version of breaking is a much more polished affair. If you’re as curious about this very cool new addition to the Olympic Games as we are, read on for the scoop on the rules, judging procedures, and the Team U.S.A. athletes who are going for the gold this summer.
What is breaking?
The term “breaking” is a reference to the instrumental breaks and the beat of music. The dance sprung from New York’s hip-hop culture over fifty years ago, and the first international competitions occurred in the 1990s. The sport centers around a combination of athletic motions including flips, spins, and twirls, all improvised on the fly.
Breaking was introduced to the Olympics at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. The event was such a success that it has now been selected as one of the 32 sporting events of the Paris games, the only new sport this year.
How does a breaking competition work?
Breakers are referred to as B-Boys and B-Girls in the sport, so competitors are split into groups of 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls. The day will begin with a round-robin phase with four groups of four. Two individuals from each group will advance to the quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and, eventually, solo battles for the medals. Solo battles are judged by the athlete’s improvised dance moves set to random DJ-selected tracks.
During a battle, or throwdown, a breaker has just 60 seconds to complete a routine, and their competitor must immediately respond. The music is completely random, so they have to think (and act!) fast. A panel of nine judges scores the athletes based on six criteria: personality, technique, variety, creativity, musicality, and performativity. Of those, creativity and performativity are given the most weight in the scoring. The entire competition is expected to take about five hours to complete.
Judges take things like coordination and athleticism into consideration when scoring, and dancers can be thrown out or given demerits for “bad behavior.” Sounds like things could get spicy!
What days can we watch breaking at the Paris Olympics?
The B-Girls competition will be held on August 9. The B-Boys competition will be held on August 10. Both events will be held at La Concorde, the temporary arena set up at the Place de la Concorde, which will also host non-traditional events like skateboarding, cycling BMX freestyle, and 3×3 basketball.
Who’s on the Team U.S.A. Breaking team?
There are four Americans total competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics breaking competition. The entire competition is expected to take about five hours to complete. Thirty-year-old Victor Montalvo of Florida and 29-year-old Texan Jeffrey Louis will duke it out against the B-Boys, while 35-year-old Tennessee native Sunny Choi and 21-year-old Californian Logan Edra (aka Logistx) will compete against their fellow B-Girls.
France was granted two host seats (one per gender), and the remaining athletes earned their spot through last year’s world championships and their respective continental Games and Qualifiers.
Who’s the favorite to win gold?
There are a few breakers who are almost guaranteed a spot atop the podium. American Montalvo won a gold medal in the dancesport competition at the 2022 World Games, so he’s a frontrunner for Olympic gold. Meanwhile, Lithuanian B-Girl Nicka (Dominika Banevič) won the 2023 European Championships breaking title, so she’s expected to lead the B-Girls pack.
Other favorites for the B-Boys event include Asian champion Shigekix, Pan American champion Phil Wizard, and European Champion Dany Dann, who is French. For the B-Girls event, Asian Champion 671 (from China) is an 18-year-old force to be reckoned with, as are Ami Yuasa from Japan and Ayumi of Canada.
Where can we watch breaking?
Breaking will be aired on NBC and E! Many events will later stream on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Olympics app. This is the most fun new event to hit the Olympics lineup since surfing, which should also be a blast to watch. Go Team U.S.A.!
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