On Monday, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach announced that Breakdancing would become an official Olympic sport. The Olympic sport will be called Breaking (a name coined by the 1970s Hip-Hop pioneers in the United States). Place de la Concorde in Paris will be hosting the Breaking events. Surfing, Skateboarding, and Sports climbing are the other new sports included in the Paris 2024 roster. These three sports are already part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (Tokyo Olympic starts from July 23, 2021).
Breaking featured at the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games. The event was a great success. There was a three medal event that drew crowds of over 30,000 people each day. The participants are known as b-boys and b-girls; every dancer has a stage name. Paris 2024 will witness 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls compete for one-on-one battle in front of a panel of judges. The inclusion of breaking as a sport will attract a young audience and increase the viewership of the Olympic Games by manifold.
How will the participation of Indian athletes be affected?
To make the Olympics more manageable to host in the post-COVID era, the IOC has made few subtractions-10 fewer medal events for Paris 2024. With the introduction of four new sports, IOC has decided to reduce the overall quota for the events such as weightlifting and boxing- weightlifting will have 76 fewer participants and 34 fewer participants for boxing. The widespread doping in these sports and ambiguous governing bodies were the main reason for the reduction in the number of participation. IOC is still reviewing whether weightlifting will earn a spot in Paris 2024 Games. Indian athletes have won many Olympic medals in boxing and weightlifting. This modification might affect the Indian contingency to some extent.
"Reduction in overall participants is disappointing, loss of one category for men is disappointing but the addition of one category in the women's section is a positive sign"
said Jay Kowli, Secretary-General, BFI (Boxing Federation of India). "It's not all bad for boxing. It's good for India because we are good in women's boxing and have won World Championships in four categories. "
A chance for Indian Breakers to shine?
On the brighter side, Indian Breakers may have a chance to qualify for the Olympics. The top Indian breakers have accepted the news with open arms. Indian breakers have participated in many private global competitions- a notable one being the Red Bull BC One World 2019, Mumbai. Arif Chaudhary aka b-boy Flying Machine was the only finalist from India; Johanna Rodrigues (aka b-girl Jo) and Mumbai's Ramesh Yadav (aka b-boy Tornado) participated in the qualifying rounds. According to Reuters, the finals reached 50 Million views across streaming platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
The National Federation is even planning to appoint an International breaker as a coach. Many budding breakers have started approaching the federation for proper training.
From left to right: Arif Chaudhary, Johanna Rodrigues and Ramesh Yadav (via Red Bull)
"I hope the Indian breakers get a fair shot at qualifying for the Olympics"
Johanna Rodrigues said. "Breaking has been going on for many years already, with or without Olympics. I don't think four years is too short."
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