The Olympics has announced its newest sport added to the games, breakdancing.
What We Know:
- The Internation Olympic Committee announced Breakdancing as a new Olympic Sports Monday. The sport will premiere at the 2024 Paris Games. The sport’s addition comes as part of the plan to add more urban and gender-neutral events to lure younger audiences.
- Breakdancing was popularized by African American and Latino communities in New York City in the late 60s and early 70s. Breakdancing started in urban communities; gangs used breaking to battle in turf wars. The dance is recognizable from its footwork and moves such as backspin and headspins. Breakdancing is improvisational, with the main focus of the dancing being energy, movement, creativity, humor, and providing a sense of danger. Clothing such as baggy pants, sideways baseball caps, and sneakers are often associated with the dance. The name break refers to the sounds made from DJ’s mixing and switching records.
- Other urban events include skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing, all introduced for the 2020 Tokyo Games but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic to 2021. All three events will premiere on July 23rd, 2021, at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
- According to CBS News, the sport will be called “breaking,” as known in the ’70s. After positive trials in the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Paris proposed the sport and passed further approval stages in 2019. Breaking will join sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
- In an interview with The Guardian, British breakdancer Karam Singh shared their excitement over the addition of the sport. “It’s going to be great for breaking as it gives us more recognition as a sport,” he said. “And for the Olympics, it will attract young people who may not follow some of the traditional sports.”
- Forty-one additional events were proposed at Monday’s meeting; however, the IOC rejected all increases. The only changes made were at the expense of current events dropped. There will be 329 medal events in the Paris games, which is ten fewer than Tokyo. Weightlifting was hit the hardest, losing four events and a smaller quota of athletes, around 600 less than Tokyo. Weightlifting will have around 120 athletes in Paris, which is less than half of its total in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Depending on the success of the 2024 Olympics, the IOC may drop weightlifting entirely and add more urban and gender-neutral events.
Of the new urban and gender-neutral events, Sport Climbing, Surfing, and Skateboarding will premiere first in Tokyo in 2021. Breakdancing will premiere in the Paris 2024 games.
