With the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) warmly welcoming the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session to include Breaking on the sports programme, b-boys and b-girls are already sharpening up their moves and groves ready for its inclusion in the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Breaking made its Olympic debut last year at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, but its inclusion on the Paris 2024 programme is the first time any DanceSport discipline has appeared at an Olympic Games.
“This is history for the DanceSport community and the discipline of Breaking,” said WDSF President Shawn Tay. “We are sure Breaking will be an outstanding success in Paris and will add lots of energy, athletic excellence, innovation and youth appeal to the Olympic Games. WDSF, together with the Breaking community, is ready to collaborate closely with Paris 2024 and the IOC to make the Olympic dream of the world’s best b-boys and b-girls come true.”
The Paris 2024 organisers proposed four sports - Breaking, together with Skateboarding, Sport Climbing and Surfing - in response to a new level of flexibility afforded to Olympic Games Host Cities to encourage innovation in the Olympic programme. Host Cities, beginning with Tokyo 2020, now have the option of suggesting new sports and events for inclusion in their edition of the Games that are not binding on future Games hosts.
The new sports were proposed in February by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for inclusion at the XXXIII Olympiad. In March, the IOC Executive Board (EB) gave the green light to the proposal, which was then put to a vote by the IOC Session (the assembly of all IOC members), currently meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
B-boy, Mounir, the Vagabond Crew member who joined the Paris 2024 delegation presenting at the IOC Session, said: “This is historic. We were humble, but we never doubted. A pessimist never changed the world. We started from nothing, we learned how to make more with less, we believed in the impossible and today the impossible becomes possible.”
DJ Renegade, who has been involved in UK breaking since the 1980s, said the proposal for the event to be at the 2024 Olympics was "one of the most exciting things that's happened in our scene.
He said: "People were mentioning this back in 1983".
"Right now people are training in train stations.
"We don't have any gyms or studios, you have to pay for that stuff. It would be nice if there was an academy where you can go and learn about the culture."
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in the French capital from 26 July to 11 August.
