Olympic track, field … and dance floor
Break-dancers on verge of bringing hip-hop culture to Paris 2024 as squash and karate miss out again
IN 2024, the Olympics is set to be turned on its head.
Breaking – or break dancing, as it is commonly known – yesterday came one step closer to featuring in the Paris 2024 Games after getting the nod from the hosts.
It is the first time the energetic form of street dance has been considered for inclusion as a sport and follows efforts to broaden the showcase’s appeal to younger generations.
Typically set to hip-hop, funk or breakbeat music, competitive breaking pits practitioners – known as Bboys or Bgirls – against one another in a head-to-head tournament format.
The sport was one of the success stories of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, where it drew huge crowds and implemented a pioneering new scoring system.
Judges, including Britain’s Kevin Gopie, used ipads to assess each 40-60 second performance on a sliding scale in three categories – physical, artistic and creative attributes.
Team GB did not compete in last year’s event, but the country is home to several world-class talents who could help lead the way to Olympic glory.
They include Terra, a 12-year-old Bgirl from Wolverhampton whose abilities made her a viral sensation.
Paris organisers will now put forward breaking alongside climbing, skateboarding and surfing – which are already confirmed for Tokyo 2020 – for final approval by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December 2020.
The surprise announcement meant other sports vying to be included such as squash and karate faced being crowded out – a development described as “heartbreaking” by the head of England Squash.
However, Mr Gopie, who has been involved in the breaking scene since the early 1980s, defended its legitimacy.
The 49-year-old, known as Kev the Renegade, told The Daily Telegraph: “People try and disrespect and say ‘we might as well have tiddlywinks’, but I would put the fitness and athleticism of a Bboy or Bgirl against any of these sports any day. It is as much a sport as anything else, it’s athletic, it has rules, it has judges. I don’t think sport is limited to running and jumping. “We have incredible people here, we just need facilities. We have got a new generation coming – we could be contenders.” And with an experimental new judging system based on creativity as much as skill, he hopes one thing is clear: “We are not gymnastics.”
Announcing its decision yesterday, Paris 2024 described breaking as an “urban, universal and popular sport with more than a million Bboys and Bgirls in France”.
There are fears, however, that its potential emergence as a mainstream discipline may ultimately shut out the urban communities in which it has traditionally flourished. Roxanne Milliner, a 29-year-old from Streatham, south London who is one of the world’s leading Bgirls under the name Roxy, said: “Breaking in the Olympics is an amazing opportunity in so many ways, but it’s worrying that it could turn it into a sport without the artistry, attracting the wrong kind of attention and commercialising it.
“Part of the concern of some people is that breaking classes will end up being expensive – ballet started in the streets but now many of the people good at ballet went to private schools that cost a lot of money.” She added that a female category in the Olympics may help tackle the “misogyny” that had previously plagued the breaking scene, by encouraging young women to become involved.
The four extra sports identified yesterday come on top of the 28 already due to take place at Paris 2024, with the number of participating athletes capped at 10,500. The British Olympic Association said: “We look forward to welcoming all new sports into the Olympic Games and will work with the relevant bodies to develop our relationships at the appropriate time.”
Sport: Pages 12-13