17 Mar

A Guide to Breaking, the Newest Sport at the Olympics

To make the competition diverse, the IOC has limited each country to a maximum of two B-boys and two B-girls, while introducing two universal places that provide opportunities to smaller and emerging nations. For one, it’s a chance to introduce breaking to a global audience who might never have encountered it otherwise. It’s an opportunity to showcase the skill, creativity, and athleticism that goes into this dance form, and to challenge preconceptions about what constitutes a sport. Some in the breaking community worry about the potential for commercialization and the loss of breaking’s raw, street culture roots.

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The AIBA election is scheduled as a Court of Arbitration for Sport panel of judges is preparing a verdict in a landmark case in the Russian doping saga that could see widespread punishments imposed on the nation’s sports. Teams will be advised of a policy that athletes should arrive at their accommodation no more than five days before the start of their competition and have left two days after it ends. All increases were rejected, including ocean rowing and parkour, and changes were allowed only at the expense of existing events being dropped. Two extreme canoe slalom events will replace canoe sprint events, and the men’s 50km race walk will be replaced by a mixed gender team event. Breakdancing will be called breaking at the Olympics, as it was in the 1970s by hip-hop pioneers in the United States. With Paris organizers needing time to prepare their project, the IOC kept to its pre-pandemic schedule to confirm the 2024 sports lineup this month even before some are tested in Tokyo.

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However, this number has increased to nine in the Olympic framework, presumably to minimise subjectivity and risk of errors. There will also be “misbehavior buttons.” Each made a post judge will have three — mild, moderate and severe — to penalize a breaker when they act or gesture inappropriately. As noted by Red Bull, the Rock Steady Crew embarked on the Roxxy European Hip-Hop tour in 1982, performing in London and Paris, and made a notable appearance on The Letterman Show in 1983. “The passion and the pain that goes with living through struggle — that is the essence of the dance. You want to make sure that the soul of it isn’t diluted.” In Paris, breaking has been given a prestige downtown venue, joining sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball at Place de le Concorde.

If breakers point to their ears during a battle, they’re saying an opponent is dancing off-key (not listening to the music). And that is part of the challenge, as breakers try to introduce their competition to Olympic audiences. Battles are not won by the person who spins on his head 100 times, but by transitions, and expression, and miniscule gestures and moves that the uninitiated might not notice. As we look ahead to breaking’s Olympic debut in Paris, it’s clear that we’re entering a new era for this dynamic dance form. The Olympic spotlight will undoubtedly bring changes, but it also presents incredible opportunities.

• There are multiple rounds per battle, and in each round, competitors will try to land power moves – acrobatic spins, flips and the like – while also mixing in what is called “top rocking,” or dance elements performed while upright.
• Also confirmed for Paris by the IOC executive board were skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing.
• Breakdancing will be called breaking at the Olympics, as it was in the 1970s by hip-hop pioneers in the United States.

So don’t forget to tune in early on August 9 and 10 to witness this special celebration before following this exciting contest when we will see the first-ever Olympic breaking champions crowned. The trivium judging system that will be used in Paris was developed by influential B-boy Storm and DJ Renegade for the 2018 Youth Olympics, and has been fine-tuned through the series of WDSF events since. However, major competitions still exist outside the official governance, such as Red Bull BC One and the Battle of the Year, that arguably carry more credibility within the breaking community. The Rock Steady Crew gained significant media attention in 1981 when their high-energy battle with the Dynamic Rockers was featured by major outlets like National Geographic. In 1982, Crazy Legs, now the crew’s president, launched a Manhattan chapter and teamed up with Afrika Bambaataa to advance Hip Hop culture by joining his Zulu Nation. According to Red Bull, the origins of breaking can be traced back to the early 1970s in the South Bronx, New York City.

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While there has been backlash among some of the older breakers, who brought the dancing style to prominence in the 1970s and 80s, Crazy Legs views all of this as part of a natural evolution. “I think it’s amazing, the transition that breaking is going into and how it’s evolving throughout the years,” said Jeremy “Icey Ives” Viray, an Alaska-based B-boy. Weightlifting should have 120 athletes in Paris, which is less than half of its total at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. The sport could be dropped entirely due to its historic doping problems and IOC concerns over the pace and depth of reform at the International Weightlifting Federation. Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will make their debuts at the Tokyo Games which were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic by one year to open on July 23, 2021.

She spent several years as both an aspiring gymnast and breaker before deciding more than five years ago to focus on dancing. Victor describes it as a “sport slash art,” combining the physical demands of high-intensity dancing and acrobatics with the creative demands of, say, painting. Some combinations of moves can be practiced, but much of a round is improvised. Crazy Legs, now 54, is one of the pioneers of breaking and the president of Rock Steady Crew, one of its iconic groups. He believes it will be important for prominent breakers like himself to work with the IOC and the World DanceSport Federation to ensure the Olympic version of breaking stays true to its roots.

It might not be evident when you’re watching tennis or soccer, but many sports have international federations, and many have Olympic organizing committees. In order to gain inclusion, a sport’s international federation must appeal to the IOC’s Olympic Program Commission with a detailed proposal. Convincing the IOC of a sport’s worthiness hinges on a few criteria, some of which—such as popularity with global youth and business prospects—are weighted more heavily than others in certain circumstances. It follows the addition of sports such as skateboarding and surfing, which debuted at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It is also fair to say though that breaking made it to Paris 2024 thanks to the insistence of the host country. Within those groups, each dancer will be matched up in one-on-one battles called throw downs.

However, it wasn’t long before the mainstream media caught wind of this exciting new dance form. Dancers began to develop new moves, incorporating elements from gymnastics, martial arts, and other dance styles. They engaged in dance-offs, battling each other to prove who had the best moves. This competitive aspect, which remains central to breaking today, was present from the very beginning. By 1990, international competitions began and they soon became regular events, drawing performers from all over the globe.