B-boy Victor: From childhood dream to eyeing Paris 2024 podium - Competing with "freedom"
The top-ranked American - Victor Montalvo - claimed the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championships men's title to add to his lengthy list of wins. He was introduced to breaking his father who had dancing dreams of his own, too.
Breaking
Even with the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championships gold medal around his neck B-boy Victor refused to accept what had happened.
"I feel in shock. I can't believe I won," the legendary American breakdancer told Olympics.com after the contest, still digesting the magnitude of his victory.
"I lost the last three Olympic qualifying events. I kept on placing third. And I was just kind of discouraged. I'm like, All right, can I do it? Is it still possible for me to win one of these events? And yeah, [I] just kept my composure. I was grounded and I made sure that I showed that I wanted it more. This was my only chance, and I gave it my all."
By finishing top of the podium Victor Montalvo’s win in Leuven, Belgium, also saw him obtain a quota spot for Paris 2024, bringing him one step closer to achieving his goal of making it to the Games where he has dreams of claiming even more bounty.
"I feel like I have a really high chance" to medal there, B-boy Victor told the Associated Press last year speaking about his ambitions for the Olympics in less than a year's time.
High chance because of his high-level and largely original skillset, which has led him to a cadre of championship trophies since he broke onto the scene in 2011, including the title at the 2022 Red Bull BC One World Finals and now a second world title.
"I have one year right now," the B-boy continued explaining what he will do between now and Paris.
"I'm just going to enjoy myself. I'm going to enter more crew battles. I'm not going to enter so many one-on-ones. My focus is just to create and to reinvent my style and my moves."
B-Boy Victor: Inspired by his father
B-boy Victory's story is one of those believe-it-if-you-can tales, having first been introduced to breaking at age six by his father, Mexican native Victor Bermudez, and uncle Hector, the twin duo having been breaking pioneers in the mid-80s as the dance style gained popularity across Mexico.
Family life eventually took Bermudez's time and attention, but it was a lifestyle he was determined to pass along to his son.
“I didn’t have a chance to do it, so it means everything to watch my son live his dreams – and through him, I can live my own,” Victor Bermudez told The Red Bulletin last year. "Everything I wanted to do, he’s doing now.”
B-boy Victor: 'Just follow your dreams'
Having grown up in Kissimmee, Florida, B-boy Victor began to get serious about breaking in 2005, when he was 11. He made his way up the competitive ranks but didn't have a true breakthrough until 2011 when he was 16.
Now 12 years later, having just turned 28, he's the No. 1-ranked American in the sport, which will make its debut in the Olympic programme next summer in Paris.
He found his first major success at a domestic event in 2011, which led to leaving the country for his first international trip, but also one that came with the decision to rush a passport application (he'd never had one before), drop out of school and - eventually - moved to Europe for several months.
At a pivotal, decisive moment, his father's advice was as it has always been: Follow your dreams.
"He was the only one who truly believed in me," Montalvo said of his dad. "My mum and her side of the family were really upset,” he told Red Bulletin. “They thought it was horrible, that I was going to be a nobody, that I needed to go back to school to have a career. But my dad was OK with it. He was like, ‘Just follow your dreams.'"
What came in the ensuing years is dream-like, to say the least: His first Red Bull BC One World Finals title in Rome in 2015, the Undisputed World B-Boy Series winner later that year - and again in 2017 - and the 2021 WDSF (World DanceSport Federation) World Breaking Championships gold in Paris, France.
Each victory reaffirmed the belief he had in himself to take the initial leap and pursue his passion.
Victor Montalvo: Moving with freedom
To watch B-boy Victor do his thing in a breaking competition is breathtaking, to say the least - and eye-popping: He moves to the beat with an easy flow, then transitions seamlessly into a flurry of signature breaking moves, including the one he's most well-known for, a backflip flare.
"It's not just moves, it's all about the dance... the soul," Montalvo told Team USA. "I'm trying to have as much freedom as I can on the stage."
That freedom is what draws people in, making him one of the top dancers in the world as the Olympic Games draw closer, and a forced hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic paired with a lack of motivation in early 2020 as Montalvo re-evaluated his passion for the sport.
It turned his attention to other activities, including mountain biking, snowboarding and spending time on the beach after a move in 2021 to Los Angeles.
As breaking reaches more and more fans with the Olympics drawing closer, Victor told the Red Bulletin he doesn't just want to introduce the dancing to a new audience - he wants people to understand the full culture.
"There are two sides to breaking: the battling and the culture," he explained. "I want people to know about the culture, because if you don’t understand what breakers are doing, the competition side can get boring. I want people to see both sides."
It traces back to those childhood roots and a passion for breaking that his family instilled in him. He now sees it as a great American story, but one he's come up with his own dance moves for.
"I'm from the country where dreams come true," he said recently.
So will his Paris 2024 dreams be next?