What's new at Paris 2024? Discover the sport of breaking
Paris 2024 is set to get a boost of excitement as B-Boys and B-Girls showcase their dynamic moves in the Olympic debut of breaking. But what is breaking? How will breaking be scored at the Olympics? And which B-Boys and B-Girls should you follow? Olympics.com answers all your questions.
At Olympic Games Paris 2024, breaking will make its debut while other sports will feature revised formats and disciplines. To keep you up to date, Olympics.com is bringing you everything you need to know about what’s new at Paris 2024.
Today, it's the turn of breaking. This new Olympic sporting event will add more style to the Games by welcoming 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls to La Concorde, following the successful addition of urban sports like sport climbing, skateboarding, BMX freestyle, 3x3 basketball to the Olympic programme of Tokyo 2020 two years ago.
What is breaking?
Breaking is an urban dance style that originated in the Bronx borough of New York during the 1970s as a part of hip-hop culture. It is characterised by a combination of athletic moves including spins, flips and other complex body movements.
Breaking athletes are known as B-Boys and B-Girls with the “B” standing for “break”, which refers to a brief instrumental interlude with intense beats in music.
The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) was the first Olympic event to showcase breaking, welcoming 12 B-Boys and 12 B-Girls to Buenos Aires 2018.
At Paris 2024, the breaking competition will take place at La Concorde on 9 and 10 August 2024. The event will feature 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls who will face off in 1v1 battles to music that is randomly played by a DJ.
How are breaking scores judged?
If you're wondering how B-Boys and B-Girls will be evaluated at the Olympic Games, here's how it works.
Traditionally, a Trivium Value System is used to assess the performances of competitors, using three faders: Physicality Quality (for the body), Artistic quality (for the mind) and Interpretive quality (for the soul). Each category makes up one-third of the entire score.
Added to that, each criterion has six cross-faders, which are as follows:
- 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, a new judging system has been introduced for Olympic Breaking.
Korean B-Boy Skim (Kim Heon-jun) who is also the WDSF Breaking Competition System Specialist, explained the judging system and offered advice on how to watch breaking in a brief interview with Olympics.com.
Olympics: What is the new judging system?
Skim: The new judging system incorporates five faders: Musicality, Vocabulary, Originality, Technique and Execution. While the Trivium still serves as the foundation, breaking will be evaluated based on these five categories. And judges will also have a penalty button in front of them for use in cases of misbehaviour.
Olympics: What's the best way to watch the Olympic Breaking?
Skim: Keeping the five categories in mind, the audience can enjoy watching Olympic breaking more by paying attention to one or more aspects. As we approach the Paris 2024 Games, I hope that people will become comfortable evaluating breaking performances based on all five categories.
One of my responsibilities is to bridge the gap between breaking as a sport and breaking as a cultural phenomenon. While everyone at the Olympics wants his or her NOC to make the podium, I also want fans to discover their favourite dance style through each battle. That’s a real way to enjoy breaking.
Athletes to watch at Paris 2024
B-Boys
French B-Boy Dany (Danis Civil) had a strong start to the year, winning gold at the 2023 Breaking for Gold (BfG) World Series in Rio de Janeiro where he defeated reigning world champion B-Boy Phil Wizard (Philip Kim) of Canada.
B-Boy Phil Wizard failed to advance to the top eight round at the first BfG in Kitakyushu, Japan, but won silver at the following event. His experience highlights just how difficult it is to consistently make it onto the podium in the current competitive scene.
Japanese B-Boy Shigekix (Narakai Shigeyuki), the 2018 Youth Olympic bronze medallist and runner-up in the 2022 world championship, showed his ability to maintain high standards by winning bronze at both of this year’s BfG World Series events.
B-Boy Victor (Victor Montalvo), the 2019 and 2021 world champion, and his compatriot B-Boy Jeffro (Jeffrey Mike Louis) from Team USA are also medal contenders at La Concorde.
2023 European champion B-Boy Menno (Menno Van Gorp) of the Netherlands, Kazakhstan’s B-Boy Amir (Amir Azkirov), and Korean newcomers B-Boy Hong 10 (Kim Hong-yul) and B-Boy Wing (Kim Heon-woo) are also strong contenders having won multiple global titles.
B-Girls
While the men’s scene has been fiercely competitive, B-Girl Ami (Yuasa Ami) and B-Girl Ayumi (Fukushima Ayumi) have dominated the women’s competition. Ami earned golds at the 2019 and 2022 World Championships, and Ayumi claimed the title at the 2021 edition.
However, rookie B-Girl 671 (Liu Qingyi) from People’s Republic of China emerged in 2022 and soon showed she is capable of breaking the dominance of the Japanese B-Girls. The-16-year-old won silver at the 2022 Worlds, and stood on the top of the podium at the first Breaking for Gold (BfG) World Series this year by defeating Ami. Ami rebounded by triumphing over 671 at the second BfG World Series in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Besides those three, Italy’s B-Girl Anti (Antilai Sandrini), Netherlands’ B-Girl India (India Dewi Sardjoe), the USA’s B-Girl Sunny (Grace Choi) and France’s B-Girl Senorita Carlota (Carlota Dudek) are also stars to keep an eye on.
How to qualify for breaking at Paris 2024?
A total of 32 athletes (16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls) will qualify for Paris 2024. Host country France has been granted two quotas (one per gender) while four Universality places (two per gender) will be available.
The remaining 26 athletes will be selected through the 2023 World Championship, the Continental Games/Championships and the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS). To be eligible for a Universality place, athletes must participate in the Olympic Qualifier Series and finish in the top 24 in the final ranking of the OQS.
Schedule of breaking at Paris 2024
Friday 9 August
- 16:00-18:00: B-Girls' qualification
- 20:00-22:00: B-Girls' final
Saturday 10 August
- 16:00-18:00: B-Boys' qualification
- 20:00-22:00: B-Boys' final