The Paris 2024 Olympics Games is all set to feature the debut of the sport of breaking, find out how the sport works, scoring system, athletes to watch, how to qualify, schedule, how to watch livestream
Breaking will feature a total of 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls at La Concorde from across different countries.
What is breaking new Paris Olympics 2023 sport, rules, format, meaning and points scoring explained
ICYMI: Breakdancing is officially an Olympic sport now. Breaking, as the dancers themselves call it, is a pillar of hip-hop culture that originated in New York in the 1970s, and will feature at the Paris 2024 Games https://t.co/GZ0eXETSFA pic.twitter.com/X2utXJ04ca
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 16, 2020
Watching the incredible You Got Served final dance battle to celebrate the news that breaking will officially be an Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Games pic.twitter.com/MzPcpEHpRL
— Netflix (@netflix) December 8, 2020
Breaking follows the successful addition of other urban sports like sport climbing, skateboarding, BMX freestyle, 3×3 basketball, in the Tokyo 2020, two years ago.
Sport of breaking explained
Breaking is an urban dance style which originated in the Bronx borough of New York during the 1970s. It began as a part of hip-hop culture and it features a combination of athletic moves like spins, flips, and other complex body movements. Breaking athletes are called B-Boys and B-Girls where the “B” standing for “break”. The break refers to a brief instrumental interlude consisting of intense beats in music.
Breaking as a sport first featured as an Olympic event during the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) at Buenos Aires 2018. At the upcoming Paris 2024, breaking will take place at La Concorde on 9 and 10 August 2024. Athletes will face off in 1v1 battles while a DJ plays some random music.
Paris 2024 breaking scoring system
Breaking traditionally follows a Trivium Value System where competitors are assessed based on three faders: Physicality Quality (for the body), Artistic quality (for the mind) and Interpretive quality (for the soul). Each criteria further has six cross-faders, listed below:
- Physicality quality (body): Technique (20.0%), variety (13.333%)
- Artistic quality (mind): Creativity (20.0%), personality (13.333%)
- Interpretive quality (soul): Performance (20.0%), musicality (13.333%)
However, Olympic Breaking will feature a new system where the Trivium will serve as the foundation and further incorporate five faders: Musicality, Vocabulary, Originality, Technique and Execution.
Athletes to watch at Paris 2024
B-Boys
Given below are some of the B-boy athletes worth watching:
- French B-Boy Dany (Danis Civil) gold medalist at the 2023 Breaking for Gold (BfG) World Series
- B-Boy Phil Wizard who won silver at the 2023 BfG
- Japanese B-Boy Shigekix (Narakai Shigeyuki), the 2018 Youth Olympic bronze medallist and runner-up in the 2022 world championship
- B-Boy Victor (Victor Montalvo), the 2019 and 2021 world champion, and B-Boy Jeffro (Jeffrey Mike Louis) both from Team USA.
- B-Boy Menno (Menno Van Gorp) of the Netherlands, the 2023 European champion,
- Kazakhstan’s B-Boy Amir (Amir Azkirov)
- Korean newcomers B-Boy Hong 10 (Kim Hong-yul) and B-Boy Wing (Kim Heon-woo)
B-Girls
Given below are the B-Girls worth watching at the Paris 2024 Olympics:
- B-Girl Ami (Yuasa Ami) gold medalist at 2019 and 2022 World Championships
- B-Girl Ayumi (Fukushima Ayumi) gold medalist at the 2021 World Championships
- Rookie B-Girl 671 (Liu Qingyi) from People’s Republic of China, silver medalist at the 2022 Worlds
- Italy’s B-Girl Anti (Antilai Sandrini)
- Netherlands’ B-Girl India (India Dewi Sardjoe)
- USA’s B-Girl Sunny (Grace Choi)
- France’s B-Girl Senorita Carlota (Carlota Dudek)
Breaking at Paris 2024 how to qualify
The Paris 2024 Olympics will feature 32 athletes (16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls). Host nation France received two quotas (one per gender) and four Universality places (two per gender). The remaining 26 athletes were selected through the 2023 World Championship, the Continental Games/Championships, and the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS). For the Universality spots, athletes need to have fulfill the criteria of participating in the Olympic Qualifier Series and finish in the top 32 in the final ranking of the OQS.
Full schedule of breaking at Paris 2024 Olympics
Given below is the schedule for breaking at the Paris 2024 Olympics:
| Date | Timings | Events |
| Friday 9 August | 16:00-18:00 | B-Girls’ qualification |
| Friday 9 August | 20:00-22:00 | B-Girls’ final |
| Saturday 10 August | 16:00-18:00 | B-Boys’ qualification |
| Saturday 10 August | 20:00-22:00 | B-Boys’ final |
Breaking at Paris 2024 Olympics how to watch live stream
Fans can watch the livestream of breaking at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Olympics.com on the Olympics channel.
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