According to the Olympics website, the breaking portion of the proceedings will be divided into two events, one for men and one for women. Each event will feature 16 different contestants facing off one-on-one and improvising to music played by a DJ; whoever windmills, six-steps, and freezes best (yes, these are all breaking terms) will take home the very first Olympic medals in breaking. Judges will evaluate breaking contestants on six criteria: creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity, and musicality.
Who will be breaking at the 2024 Paris Olympics?
The “B-boys” and “B-girls” (another breaking term of art) who have qualified to compete at the upcoming Paris Olympics are Sunny Choi, Logan Edra, Jeffrey Louis, and Victor Montalvo for Team USA. The four Team USA athletes had a decidedly uphill road to Paris, as each of them was required to prove themselves at three different competitions—the 2023 WDSF World Championships, the continental championships and the four-month-long Olympic Qualifier Series—before officially qualifying to break at the Olympics.
How did breaking make its way to the 2024 Paris Olympics?
Breaking was first featured at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, and it was such a hit that many attendees lobbied the International Olympic Committee for its continued inclusion in the Games. Indeed, current Team USA B-boy Jeffrey Louis wrote a letter to the IOC, about which he now laughingly says: “I didn’t get a response back. The email was probably poorly written, but I tried. I wanted to be a part of it somehow.”
How can I watch breaking at the 2024 Paris Olympics?
This year’s men’s and women’s breaking events will take place on August 9 and 10, and can be watched on NBC and E! (or streamed online on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com or the NBC app.)
