Asian Games 2023: B-Girl Ami out for Paris 2024 quota in Hangzhou - with eyes on breaking's future
Japan's top-ranked female breaker in the Olympic Games qualifying race has Paris on her mind. But there's a lot more she's thinking about this week at the Asian Games.
Breaking
Paris 2024 is right before Ami’s eyes. She can smell it, practically see Eiffel Tower and taste the baguettes and escargot.
But not yet. First things first. Japan’s top-ranked B-Girl is trying to stay focused on the task at hand - that being the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where breaking’s two gold medallists will secure their quota for next summer’s Olympic Games.
“Unlike the qualifiers up until now, whoever wins gets a ticket (to Paris) so I think everyone, including me, will be out to win it,” Ami said during an interview with Olympics.com last month ahead of the WDSF World Breaking Championships in Leuven, Belgium.
“But I need to make sure I don’t let that get the better of me. I need to focus on one battle at a time and dance the way I always dance.
“I’m sure I’ll think about it as time nears but that’s human nature. I’ll try to think about something else important, to take my mind off it.”
As it turned out, Ami did not obtain a spot for Paris via the worlds. She went out in the round robin, unable to even reach the knockout phase.
Ami - her real name Yuasa Ami - is taking another shot at Olympic qualification this week in the People’s Republic of China.
From Japan, she is joined by Ayumi, who was runner-up in Leuven, and B-Boys Shigekix and Issin. Any one of the four could potentially top the podium of the 6-7 October inaugural Asian Games breaking competition.
A lot is riding on them to somehow get to Paris, be it through Hangzhou or another route.
It would not be a complete stretch to say the future of Japanese breaking depends on how they fare with less than a year to go to Paris.
The world champion in 2021 and 2022, Ami, for one, has thought a lot about what lies ahead for the developing sport in her home country.
It remains to be seen how the Olympic Games will actually impact breaking and its culture in the end but the 24-year-old has already noticed a fair amount of changes.
Ami herself once wondered if breaking could ever be recognised as a sporting competition yet she is now a believer. The key will be in convincing the rest of the world that it can.
“Breaking is an art form but I believe it can be a sport as well. I hope we can show the sports world what breaking has to offer. I think it’ll be interesting.
“In breaking you move really hard intensely, then you rest while someone else is dancing. Then you head back out there again. It definitely drives up your heart rate.
“I think understanding the science behind it will change things. We’re still in the experimental phase but it’s a new challenge for us for sure.”