Surviving a zombie apocalypse and more: The unexpected perks and health benefits of BMX, breaking, and skateboarding
Need another reason to pick up a bike or board or enter a dance battle? We got several. Get inspired to join the urban sports community and showcase your skills as part of the Let's Move Street Challenge for a chance to win exclusive prizes.
Being a good cyclist could help you make it to class even if you’ve slept in. Mastering swimming strokes can ensure you make the most of a seaside vacation. Running fast could whizz you ahead of the crowds lining up to buy the next gadget, while a dunk is sure to impress a crush who is watching your basketball moves from the bleachers.
All useful skills to have. When it comes to the benefits of urban sports, however, the stakes are even higher.
“I can run up a wall and do a backflip off a wall where everybody else is just like, ‘Why would you do that?’,” South African B-Girl Courtnae Paul told Olympics.com, adding: “Zombie apocalypse? You never know when you're going to need that kind of mobility.”
Olympics.com spoke to BMX riders, breakers, and skateboarders about the positive effects practising these sports had on their bodies and minds, and the moves that could help them outsmart zombies.
Want to meet some of these urban athletes in person? Submit a 30-second video of your BMX, skateboarding or breaking skills to the Let's Move Street Challenge before 21 October 2023 for a chance to go behind the scenes at an Olympic Games qualification event.
Go urban, go fit
In her early 20s, Charlotte Worthington ticked all the boxes for what is considered “healthy” in contemporary society: she was young, slim, and exercising a lot.
The reality, however, was much different. Working full-time at a restaurant as a chef, the future Olympic champion would pick up her BMX bike as soon as her shifts were done and rush to the skatepark. In that rush, nutrition and other healthy habits were left by the wayside.
“I wouldn't stop. I'd get home and I’d think, 'I have to just eat some food, get a coffee and leave'," Worthington told Olympics.com.
“I was stick thin and back then, I didn't think anything of it. I was almost believing that the thinner you were, the healthier you were or the more attractive you were. I thought, 'Well, at least I'm skinny'. But in reality I wasn't eating great food. I was eating a lot of sugar, not really well-rounded meals all the time. And I was exercising so much, but I wasn't eating enough to keep up with how much I was exercising, so that's why I was so skinny."
The life of "living off chips, energy drinks, and coffee" caught up to Worthington once she got serious about BMX. The wake-up moment came when she took part in her second competition since quitting the restaurant job.
“That competition, as painful and horrible as it was in the moment, it was such a great teacher and it was the kind of career-transforming moment of, ‘I think I'm going to have to go to the gym. I think I have to get fitter. I think I will have to watch what I eat more and take notice of that’," the Tokyo 2020 champion said.
“I started going to the gym regularly. If you compare my body now, I can take a couple bumps, I've built my shoulders up, I really see a crossover between my strength off the bike and then how it can translate onto the bike. So physically, I'm twice the size, but in such a good, healthy way. It's muscle. I feel strong.”
And how hard was it to give up her junk food habit? Not hard at all, if you get to enjoy the habit of seeing top results instead, Worthington said.
"When I saw and felt differences from doing that, it was like, 'Wow, that worked'. I had an idea, I committed to it and I got a result. And you get addicted to that. Like, 'How much more can I get?'," she said. "So the chocolate never left, for sure, and I like some tasty food. Don't get me wrong, a double cheeseburger goes down great, but just learning how to do it in moderation.”
Getting out of the comfort zone: The freedom of urban sports
Whether it’s throwing a BMX bike around or scaling walls, there is no doubt that urban sports can transform the body.
But what sets them apart from many other sports is that the physical benefits are often served with a side order of emancipation.
"There were no set rules or boundaries where you couldn't step out of the lines," Courtnae Paul said about picking up breaking. "It's given me that edge where I go, 'OK, cool, I see you and I see that line, but what if we try it this way?' And I think that's the beauty of breaking specifically, is that it teaches you to think in a different way, try something new, pushes you past your boundaries."
Those boundaries are not limited to the confines of a dance stage or skatepark either.
If a zombie apocalypse comes, Paul is ready to deploy her breaking skills to fight for humanity's survival.
“As a breaker, I can't walk properly. However, I can hop on my hands or spin on my head," she said. "My favourite thing, when I go home is, I'll go swing on the washing line and I'll do a pull up and I'll say, 'Oh, come on mum, your turn'. I enjoy those kinds of things."
Try, fail, repeat: Learning discipline through urban sports
If the first time you try to swing on a washing line, things don’t go according to plan, try again. Not only could you eventually nail the trick, but have the chance to become a Yoda of problem solving as well.
“In skateboarding there is trial and error, a lot of hard work for small increments, to land that trick. Then you master it and you get a lot of satisfaction out of that," said USA skateboarder Mariah Duran. "The problem solving is something I’ve taken into everyday life. You can just move a little bit easier, knowing that when life throws something random at you, you can figure out the task in hand."
Grinding out a trick until pure perfection is something that B-Girl Courtnae Paul has embraced as well.
“The mental aspect of it is second to none," she said of her sport. "To learn one move could take you sometimes a year. Who has that kind of mental fortitude? So if you can go through a year learning one move, I think you can take on anything else that life has to throw at you."
Whether it is the rise of the undead or a work meeting, whatever life does throw your way, urban sports can help you spin through it all with style.
"I love thinking of breaking as a gateway to so many other things because I know artists, photographers, CEOs who started as breakers, and it's given them a door into every other thing. So I think breaking as a foundation for anything in life is incredible," Paul said.
“Just go and try it. You don't have to be the guy that does 10,000 flips or whatever. You'll find your place within the style."
Connecting to a higher power
From the street to the Olympic podium – urban sports can take you anywhere.
Including a stroll in space.
“When you feel the music and you dance and you move, you're speaking to the universe. It's sacred geometry," Brazil's B-Boy Neguin, also known as Fabiano Carvalho Lopes, told Olympics.com.
“I'm a shaman. You just don't call yourself a dancer no more because you understand how powerful this is. That's why I say that this is the most advanced human technology because what is technology? To be able to have an understanding about your body and take it to the next level. People think that about yoga. People think that about meditation. A form of breaking is exactly the same thing multiplied in countless ways."
