Paris Olympics: all you need to know as breakdancing competition makes Games debut
- The global reach of breakdancing, or breaking, will be on display as the sport joins the Games for the first time
Before Paris there was Hangzhou, with breaking making its debut at the Asian Games last year.
Now its athletes, known as B-Boys and B-Girls, are appearing on an even bigger stage, as it becomes an Olympic sport.
Athletes to watch
Victor Montalvo (B-Boy Victor), United States: A breaker who describes himself as a student of old school B-Boys from the founding era of hip-hop, the 30-year-old Montalvo, who is from Kissimmee, Florida, qualified for Paris by besting all other B-Boys at the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championship in Belgium.
Sunny Choi (B-Girl Sunny), US: The 35-year-old Choi, a cheerful Queens, New York-bred breaker, has long been an ambassador for B-Girls globally. She qualified for the Paris Games with her win at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile.
Philip Kim (B-Boy Phil Wizard), Canada: Consistently ranked in the top three B-Boys in the international breaking competitive community, Kim secured a spot for Paris when he came out on top at last year’s Pan American Games.
Dominika Banevic (B-Girl Nicka), Lithuania: Banevic was the youngest in her category at last year’s WDSF World Breaking Championship, when she punched her ticket to Paris. Banevic turns 17 this month.
Storylines to follow
While breaking and hip-hop both originated in The Bronx, New York, in the 1970s, the art forms have extended far beyond the US, highlighting themes of racial and economic inequality, and subcultures around the world.
