Organizers of Paris 2024 are attempting to break the Olympic mold by introducing a new sport for the Games that summer: breakdancing.
Along with surfing, climbing, and skateboarding, the ’70s dance sport has been proposed as a new sport in the 2024 Olympic program.
In competitive breakdancing – also known as breaking – dancers face off against each other in “battles” as individuals or in groups and a judge picks a winner based on their moves. The sport has become extremely popular in France in recent years and debuted in the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“It’s a victory for us. Even if it goes no further, we’ll still have won,” said Mounir Biba, one of France’s foremost breakdancers. “There’s simply no doubt about the athletic aspects of the discipline. I defy Cristiano Ronaldo to do just one of my movements.”
The trio of other proposed sports will all make their Olympic debuts at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has until December 2020 to make a final decision on whether to approve or deny including the new sports.
“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.
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