Breakdancing Becomes Olympic Sports Games: The acrobatic dance that emerged from the hip-hop culture would debut as one of the invited sports in Paris-2024. Climbing, surfing, and skateboarding will debut in Tokyo-2020.
Breakdance is an Olympic sport: the organizers of Paris-2024 included it on Thursday in their list of invited sports proposed for the Sports that year in the French capital and climbing, surfing, and skateboarding.
The choice of these sports responds to the desire to give the event “a more urban dimension, more of a nature sport, more artistic,” explained Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris-2024 organization, during a presentation in the Parisian neighborhood of La Defense.
This selection of Breakdancing, which would be added to the 28 sports already on the program.
Yet to be validated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December 2020.
Breakdancing, an acrobatic dance that emerged from hip-hop culture, would debut at the Olympic Games in 2024, while another three sports are already invited for Tokyo-2020.
Breakdancing was at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Buenos Aires in 2018, in the form of duels (‘battles’) decided by judges. Candidates could qualify by submitting a video online. This discipline is attached to the World Sports Dance Federation (WDSF).
“In France, hip hop has existed for fifteen years within the Federation, but in a scenic form, not with battles. There is no French breakdance championship, but some competitions at the regional level. There is still work”, acknowledges Charles Ferreira, president of the French Federation of Sports Dance.
Breakdancing is one of the founding elements of hip-hop culture, graffiti, ‘deejaying’ (DJ), and rap.
The discipline is mainly unstructured, competitions often organized by the dancers themselves, collectives, or associations. Only one major world competition has been consolidated, for now, the BC One (Break Championship), devised 15 years ago by the Red Bull brand.
The IOC and the French Organizing Committee (OCOG) had announced that the number of athletes would be around 10,500 for the 2024 Games, limiting the options for team sports. The OCOG had also indicated that invited sports would not require the construction of new permanent infrastructure.
In total, these new sports should represent about 248 participants, respecting the parity between men and women.
“For the people.”
The venues for the three urban disciplines (breakdance, skateboarding, climbing) were not decided, stressed Tony Estanguet.
For surfing, Biarritz, allied to three other coastal towns in southwestern France (Capbreton, Hossegor, Seignosse), has already submitted a proposal to host the discipline Lacanau (near Bordeaux).
The total planned budget for the Paris-2024 Olympic Games is currently 6,800 million euros: 3,800 million from the private sector (IOC, sponsors, ticket sales) and 3,000 million allocated to the necessary works, 1,500 of them contributed by the public powers.
In addition to the invited sports, organizers of Paris-2024 on Thursday addressed the need to have Games “aimed at the people, for the people,” in words used by Estanguet.
In other words, Paris-2024 will propose to the general public, to all spectators, get involved in the preparations for this event and participate in the Olympic fever with sports events. The organization of the marathon, the details are not yet defining.
“With Paris-2024, the spectators of the Games finally become actors of the Games,” said Estanguet.
The list of invited sports announced this Thursday reflects the IOC’s desire and the OCOG to reach a young audience. Among the disappointed, sports that have been knocking on the Olympic door for a long time, like squash or petanque, karate, which will be part of the Tokyo-2020 Olympics and was left out for Paris-2024.
Estanguet insisted on the need to “speak to the new generations” and stressed the need to address “especially live sports on social networks.”
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