BREAKDANCING WILL MAKE its debut at the Olympics on Friday afternoon becoming the latest sport to join the roster, with thirty-two athletes set to do battle over two days but how does it all work?

Why is it at the Olympics?

Breakdancing was given the green light for inclusion at the 2024 Paris Games back in December 2020 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board agreed to put it on the programme in an attempt to grab the attention of the younger generation.

It was selected alongside the other new sports of skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing after a trial at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires was considered to be a rousing success.

Breaking will make its Olympic Games debut, building on the success of the sport at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018.pic.twitter.com/ZthK3ZRxIv

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) December 7, 2020

The other three sports made their debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, but now it’s breakdancing’s turn to officially become an Olympic sport.

Is it really a sport?

Yes!

The roots of breakdancing can be traced back to the streets of New York in the 1970s as part of hip-hop culture and is characterised by a combination of athletic moves that include spins, flips and other complex techniques.

International competitions for breakdancing began all the way back in the 1990s and the Olympics will feature some of the best dancers – known as B-Boys and B-Girls – the world has to offer.

Despite its beginnings on the streets, the sport has evolved with a fixed set of rules that ensure the competition is fair.  

Why is it called ‘Breaking’?

While breakdancing is the name more traditionally associated with the sport in the mainstream, the actual name of the sport is called ‘breaking’.

This is in reference to the instrumental breaks in music usually accompanied by beats and where the most vigorous dance battles take place.

The Olympics has adopted the name ‘breaking’ to pay homage to this history and cultural authenticity.

How will the competition work?

The inaugural competition will see 32 athletes – 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls – take to the stage at Place de la Concorde on 9 and 10 August, with B-Girls going first.

Each day will see a round-robin phase of dance battles consisting of four groups of four. The top two in each group will advance to the quarter-finals, followed by the semi-finals and final.

Dancers will face off in a one-on-one battle, dancing to music played at random by a DJ and taking turns to ‘throw down’ and perform their routine in front of a panel of judges.

The dancers will also not get to choose the music, with the DJ holding that power, forcing the dancers to react in real-time.

Each throw-down cannot be longer than 60 seconds and the judges will rate each performance on clearly defined criteria (more on that in a bit).

The best of three rounds will advance to the next stage.

What are the moves?

Three basic elements make up breaking – top rock, down rock and freeze.

Top rock consists of moves that are performed while standing up and typically involve a combination of hand movements and footwork, while down rock involves all the moves done on the floor, such as spins.

Freeze, as you may have guessed, refers to when the dancer comes to a standstill in an unnatural position (on their head or hands) in the middle of their routine.

Dancers will also perform what are called power moves which are often the highlight of the routines. Here, the dancers will perform gravity-defying, acrobatic movements spinning their entire body on hands, elbows, back, head or shoulders.

An air flare power move, for example, sees a dancer rotate their body in a circular pattern whilst upside down, alternating their balance on either arm.

Another move, called a flare, is similar to one performed in gymnastics, where the dancer balances their torso on alternating arms while swinging their legs underneath in circles.

Dancers will combine all three elements and power moves to make up a routine in time with the music.

How is it judged?

The routines will be judged on five categories – musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique and execution – which each category worth 20% of the final score.

Musicality means matching movements to the beats and rhythms of the music, while routines will need variety and range of moves to score highly on vocabulary.

Who is competing?

Athletes from more than a dozen countries, including China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the United States will take part in the breaking this year, with the battle for the medals wide open.

Victor Montalvo, an American known as B-Boy Victor and Dominika Banevič, a Lithuanian known as B-Girl Nicka are the world champions and will be expected to go far, but with a gruelling schedule and the randomness of the music playing a factor, it is all to dance for.   

When can I watch?

The B-Girls competition will take place on Friday, 9 August kicking off at 3pm Irish time.

After the round-robin, the quarter-finals will take place later that evening at 7pm Irish time, followed immediately by the semi-finals.

The final is expected to start at 8:15pm Irish time.

The B-Boys will follow the next day on Saturday, 10 August at the same times as the B-Girls.

This could also be the only Olympics to feature breaking, with the sport not included at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.