Is Breaking a new Olympic sport? Everything about the urban dance style that is making its debut at Paris Olympics 2024

Breaking is a new Olympic sport and it will officially make its debut in the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The breaking event will take place at La Concorde, Paris’ largest public square. The decision to include the urban dance style into the Games was made by the International Olympic Committee in December of 2020, after a proposal by the World DanceSport Federation.

Breaking first originated in the 1970’s, courtesy of the African-American and Puerto Rican communities from the Bronx, New York. Since then, the dance has transformed into a cultural phenomena, gaining popularity globally.

The origins of breaking are tied to hip-hop, where DJs develop rhythmic breaks for dancers. This style of dance typically showcases immense control over the body, with breakers engaging in gravity-defying moves including spins, flips, and more, all set to music that tends to rely heavily on drums.

Breaking was included in the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, where it featured 24 participants (12 boys and 12 girls) and saw outstanding success. Now, making its debut in Paris, the sport will see the participation of a total of 32 athletes, 16 ‘B-Boys’ and 16 ‘B-Girls'.

Breaking at the Olympics: Format and scoring

Breaking at the Olympics will see dancers take on each other one on one, battling it out for Olympic glory to music played randomly by a DJ.

Typical breaking competitions follow the Trivium Value System, focusing on physical, artistic and interpretative quality to assign a score. However, at the Olympics, B-Boys and B-Girls will be judged off of five characters, namely musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique, and execution.

Breaking at the Olympics: Dancers to keep an eye on

Going into the women's breaking competition at the Olympics, there are clear medals favorites. Japanese B-Girls Ami and Ayumia have been dominating the field for quite some time now. The two have won three World Championships between them, and are poised to make it to the first ever breaking Olympic podium.

Likely to give the two a tough fight are B-Girls Nicka (Dominika Banevič) and 671 (Liu Qingyi). Nicka is the current World Champion, while 671 was a silver-medalist at the 2022 championships.

Meanwhile, the men's field for breaking at the Paris Olympics is wide open. There are multiple contenders for the top of the podium spot, including France's own B-Boy Dany (Danis Civil), and Japanese B-Boy Shigekix (Narakai Shigeyuki).

Dany is a two-time French Champion, 2022 European Champion, and the former World.No 1. He started out his 2024 on a high, beating reigning World Champion Phil Wizard at the Breaking for Gold (BfG) World Series in Rio de Janeiro.

Meanwhile, Japan's Shigekix will come onto the field as one of the very few breakers with prior Olympic experience, having won bronze at the 2018 Youth Games.