The Breaking competition witnessed a significant buzz with its Olympics debut and some negative publicity added to it. The instance in discussion relates to an Australian Breaking contestant in the women’s category, Rachael Gunn (aka Raygun). While some criticized Raygun for her performance, others have questioned the eligibility of the sport itself. Now, the Australian dancer has defended herself by stating, “All my moves are original.” But someone needed to defend the sport in general as well. Former NBA star Lamar Odom took the responsibility to himself to some extent.

Legendary rapper Snoop Dogg, who is serving as an unofficial mascot for the US at the Olympics, shared a post featuring one performance from Breaking at the 2024 Paris Olympics with the caption, “Breakin!!!! 🕺🏽” Lamar Odom commented on the post, “Hip Hop done come a long way they love us so much wonder where the hate comes from…”

It is worth mentioning Breaking is the first dance discipline to be in the Olympics. But the format of the competition has been quite similar to that of other sports. Divided into two categories — B-Boy (Men’s) and B-Girl (Women’s) — the sport includes breakers taking on each other in a one-on-one battle.

The winner is based on the votes by a panel of judges in each round. But what if there is a tie in the number of rounds won? Well, in such circumstances, the breaker with more total judge votes is the winner. As for the winners of the competition in the men’s category, Canada’s Phil Wizard claimed gold, while French b-boy Danny Dann had won silver. Meanwhile, in his matchup against Japanese b-boy Shigekix, USA’s Victor Montalvo claimed bronze for himself.

On the women’s side of things, while Australia’s Raygun didn’t win a medal, she became the most popular name associated with the sport. But not in a good way. Rachael Gunn failed to win over the judges as she lost her three round-robin contests in the competitive form of breakdancing by an aggregate score of 54-0 on Friday. From her routine to her attire, everything was made fun of. But true fans have stood up for her.

However, the above-mentioned names may have to wait for a long duration to even compete again at the Olympics. And the fact this opportunity may never come again cannot be denied either. Notably, the organizers of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles have included sports like flag football, cricket, and lacrosse over breaking.

It requires three consecutive appearances for a game to become an official sport of the Olympics. “I feel like we did our job… Everyone loved it… It’s OK. We’re not in 2028, but honestly, I (am) the first ever bronze medalist for breaking. So, that’s an amazing thing to say,” Victor said of the move.

Elements of breaking: More about the sport that debuted in the 2024 Olympics

As per an article by Forbes, there are four main elements to the breaking, still in practice — toprock, footwork, power moves, and freezes. As per the article, toprock’s focus is at the start of a round, as it is mainly performed in an upright stance. Meanwhile, footwork includes different styles of steps, sweeps, and slides.

As for power moves, they are techniques based on spinning, where the breaker takes support from the upper body and momentum from the lower body. Speaking of freezes, they are exactly similar to what they sound like. They include holding a pose, usually towards the end of a sequence.

Yet another aspect of the sport, without saying, is music, which includes multiple genres from funk to hip-hop. However, an interesting aspect of the competition is that the breakers have no clue as to what songs they will be performing on. The whole competition is based on improvising while delivering the best out of it. As interesting as it may all sound, the future of breaking is looming with clouds of uncertainty as of now.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.