Despite some being concerned about what the designation may do to it as an art form, breakdancing has officially been named as an Olympic sport for the Summer Games in 2024.
Officially listed in the medal events program as “breaking,” breakdancing was added to the list of sports for 2024 by the International Olympic Committee in a bid to attract younger viewers for the Games in Paris 2024.
“We are pleased to see that Paris 2024’s proposal for new sports to the Olympic programme is very much in line with the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, which is striving to make the Olympic programme gender-balanced, more youth-focused and more urban,” the IOC said in a statement in February of 2019.
First proposed by Paris organizers nearly two years ago after successful trials at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, breaking becoming an Olympics sport follows the recent additions of skateboarding, freestyle BMX and 3-on-3 basketball for the Tokyo Games.
In the future, Parkour could also be added as an Olympic sport, although nothing is set in stone at this point.
The IOC also added surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing as official sports for Paris 2024, although those three events will make their Olympic debuts at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021.
After being delayed for a year by the coronavirus pandemic, the Summer Games are set to open in Tokyo on July 23, 2021.
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