2022 World Breaking Championships: Meet five of the best B-Boys and B-Girls representing Team USA 

The USA is the spiritual home of breaking, a sport which will make its Olympic debut at Paris 2024.

Since the birth of hip-hop culture in New York in the 1970s, the dance has been a mainstay of US society and the art form has now grown in popularity to such an extent that today there are B-Boys and B-Girls across the world facing off against each other in competition - including at the World Breaking Championships that take place from 21-22 October in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

With world titles on the line this week, Olympics.com looks at five of the USA’s greatest B-Boys and B-Girls who will be aiming for glory in Seoul.

B-Boy Victor (Victor Montalvo)

Considered one of the greatest B-Boys of his generation, B-Boy Victor enters the World Championships as the defending champion, having won the title in 2021.

One of Victor’s greatest strengths is his determination to succeed. As he said in an interview with Red Bull: “My dad always told me, ‘Whatever you do, give it 100 per cent and be the best at it – even if you’re a janitor, just be the best janitor.’”

When it comes to the Olympics, the dancer is determined to showcase the culture that the sport of breaking is entrenched in - a culture that began in his home country of the USA.

“We’re going to get more respect out of it,” he said. “There are two sides to breaking: the battling and the culture. 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.”

B-Girl Snap1 (Brianna Pritchard)

Said to be Alaska’s only B-Girl, Snap1 balances her career as a breaker with a full-time job as an army helicopter mechanic.

At 30 years old, the B-Girl is not new to the breaking scene and her dedication sees her often wake up at 4am in the morning to train alone in a spare room in her house.

When she’s not training or competing, Snap1 works for the Alaska Army National Guard as a helicopter mechanic, and she doesn’t believe that either of her two loves needs to suffer because of the other.

“I want to prove that you can be good at your job, and be good at your passion,” she told RockTheBells.com. “You don't have to suck at one to be good at the other. You can be phenomenal at both. But you have to be disciplined. You have to give it your all every day."

And Snap1 has a strong reason for wanting to represent her country at the next Olympics in Paris: Her sporty father.

"My dad was a phenomenal hockey player and he wanted to go to the Olympics," She said. "He's the one who really instilled this drive into me. So to be able to see my dad, and just my country, and to walk into the stadium with Team USA, would bring me to tears."

B-Boy Frankie (Frank Perez Junior)

With 72 Olympic qualification points already in the bag from the BfG Challenge Series in Canada, B-Boy Frankie will be aiming to add to his tally when he competes in Seoul.

The dancer is deeply involved with the breaking scene, documenting the sport through photography and film, while even releasing his first book on the subject, “See Me Up? It’s Cause I Been Down.”

While he is an avid student of breaking, B-Boy Frankie also sees great value in its addition to the Olympic programme, telling Flaunt.com in an interview: “The Olympics could kind of be a really big catalyst to help the scene take a big leap forward, expanding what we do into the consciousness of people outside of the culture.

“My prediction is that, out of the newly added sports, it's probably going to be the most successful just because, visually speaking, in terms of like imagery that you can create from it. It’s also a novelty kind of thing. I don't think [other sports] visually look as interesting as breaking does.”

B-Girl Pep-C (Carmarry Hall)

Pep-C’s second place in the BfG Challenge Series saw her accrue 150 Olympic qualification points, as she sits behind only Mexico’s B-Girl Swami in the current rankings heading into the Worlds.

The Indianapolis native, who combines dance with part-time work, says breaking takes her into an almost meditative state,

“If I’m into a song I really like, I have those moments where it feels kind of like I’m blacking out,” she told indystar.com. “It’s just a flow. It’s almost like a meditation. You enter a different realm.”

Another big performance at the Worlds could see her closer to becoming one of the two B-Girls who will represent the USA at Paris 2024.

B-Boy Jeffro (Jeffrey Louis)

Having won silver in the breaking competition at this year’s World Games and racked up 200 Olympic qualification points from the BfG Challenge Series, B-Boy Jeffro is firmly on course for a place at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The B-Boy believes his unique skillset is the key to him doing well at the Olympics, recently telling the Stance YouTube Channel that “You don’t have to conform to what anybody thinks. It’s you doing you to the best of your ability and getting judged on it.”

B-Boy Jeffro’s appearance in the final of the World Games saw him match up against compatriot B-Boy Victor who was a runaway 3-1 winner in the title decider. Can he go one further and claim Olympic gold at Paris 2024?