From the streets to TV screens and now to the Olympics. A new revolution is coming to the world of popping, locking, and b-boying. Breaking or breakdancing will make its Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Breaking has come far from hip-hop’s forefront in the United States, which originated in the New York Bronx in the 1970s and has achieved popularity in countries around the world, including Japan, Australia, and France, thanks to dance crews and the popularity of dance competition shows on TV.  Breaking is a discipline of the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF), which was founded in 1957.

And breaking athletes are known as B-boys and B-girls, and the “B” stands for “break”. Jean-Laurent Bourquin of the International Olympic Committee was the CEO at WDSF during the 2016 Rio Olympics, and he presented several ideas to the IOC to include DanceSport in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. Following this, the IOC decided to include breaking in its 2018 Youth Olympics program. Breaking’s immense popularity and the attention it received at the Youth Olympics changed the course of the sport, and six years later, the sport is now included in the 2024 Olympics.

The scoring system of Breaking at Paris Olympics 2024

According to Olympics.com, breaking will take place at La Concorde on August 9 and 10, 2024, at the Paris Olympics. While the DJ plays random beats, 16 B-boys and 16 B-girls will face off in 1v1 battles. But how will the scoring system work? traditionally A Trivium value system is used to assess the performances of competitors, particularly in the context of dance sports, based on three qualitative values that require a combination of physical skill and artistic expression. Each of these categories will make up one-third of the entire score.

However, for Olympic Breaking, a new judging system has been announced. According to Korean B-Boy Skim (Kim Heon-jun), “The new judging system incorporates five faders: Musicality, Vocabulary, Originality, Technique and Execution. While the Trivium still serves as the foundation, breaking will be evaluated based on these five categories. And judges will also have a penalty button in front of them for use in cases of misbehaviour”. And now, as the excitement begins, the top USA contenders, who are the ambassadors of the country where breakdancing originated, are making waves.

USA’s top break dancers and the qualifications

A maximum of two spots per gender per country can represent the breaking team in Paris. Victor Montalvo, aka “B-Boy Victor,” a two-time Red Bull BC One champion and the 2022 World Games gold medalist, became the first American to qualify for Paris after he won the World Championships in Belgium on Sept. 24. Other top breakers from the country also include Sunny Choi, aka “B-Girl Sunny”, who was a World Championships silver medalist in 2022 and came in second at the 2023 WDSF Pan American Championships. B-Girl Sunny saw her Olympic dream come alive after the success of breaking at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.  The options for breakdancers to secure a spot in the Olympics were performing at the World Championships and the Pan-Am Games. Breakdancers who did not qualify through the Worlds or the Pan-Am Games have another chance to earn a spot in the Olympics through the “Olympic Qualifier Series.”

This series will take place from March to June and allow breakers from around the world to compete for a limited number of Olympic slots.  However, there are only a limited number of Olympic spots available in the Qualifier Series; at most, seven male breakdancers and seven female breakdancers will be able to qualify for the Olympics through this series. Team USA will compete against breakers from countries all around the world in the Qualifier Series, and there are no guarantees that a Team USA breaker will secure one of those seven spots. Team USA breakdancers train at the U.S. Olympic Center in Colorado Springs to prepare the athletes for the upcoming breakdancing qualifiers and the Olympics.  The training camp will focus on refining and fine-tuning the different elements of breakdancing.

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In addition to the technical and physical aspects of training,  the training also allows team bonding to foster camaraderie between the members. As the Paris Olympic Games 2024 approach in less than a year, fans and enthusiasts are eagerly counting down the days to witness the electrifying and creative sport of breakdancing take center stage at the world’s most prestigious sporting event.

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