Breakdancing at the 2024 Summer Olympics: what you need to know, schedule and participants

The 2024 Summer Olympics will bring us new sports. The Dailysports team introduces you to the debutant of the Olympics - breakdancing.

Breakdancing at the 2024 Summer Olympics: what is it?

Breakdancing is a branch of hip-hop that has become a sport dance. It originated in the United States in the early 1970s, and the very definition of "breakdancing" emerged in 1981.

Breakdancing became an Olympic sport in December 2020, and according to NOC president Thomas Bach, the programme intends to increase the popularity of the Games among young people.

Dancers in the sport have their own definition: a b-boy is a male breakdancer, and a b-girl is a female.

The breakdancing competitions themselves can take place on improvised dance floors, which are formed simply by people forming a circle around the contestants.

Breakdancing at the 2024 Summer Olympics: who are the competitors?

A total of 33 athletes will take part in the breakdancing competition: 16 men and 17 girls. They are determined as a result of continental competitions (e.g. Asian Games, European Games), as well as the World Breakdancing Championships and a special qualification tournament.

Also, two spots in each gender were reserved for countries that have expressed interest in having their athletes participate in the Olympics. The spots are mainly open to NOCs that have entered an average of eight or fewer athletes at the previous two Olympics.

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Reigning world breakdancing champions Victor Montalvo of the United States and Dominika Banievic of Lithuania will also be travelling to Paris for the Games. They are considered one of the contenders for the gold medals.

Breakdancing at the 2024 Summer Olympics: when, where and how will the competition take place?

Each day begins with a round-robin stage consisting of four groups of four. The top two in each group advance to the quarter-finals and then the semi-finals and battle it out for medals.

The contestant's task will be to combine different dance moves to get the highest score from the judges.

The judges evaluate the breakers on the following criteria: musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique and execution. Each category accounts for 20 per cent of the score.

Each dance battle consists of three rounds, during which the breaker has 60 seconds to present his programme. At the end of each round, the judges announce their scores.

The one who won more rounds and scored more points, the one who goes to the next round.

There are only two days for breakdancing in the games: 9 and 10 August. On the first day the men will compete, including qualification and finals, and on the next day the women will compete.

The qualification and finals have clear time slots: 16:00 and 20:00 (Central European Time).

All breakdancing competitions will take place in Paris' Place de la Concorde.

History of breakdancing at the Olympic Games

Despite the fact that at the adult Olympics breakdancing will be for the first time, at the Games in principle this sport can not be called a debutant. It was tested at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Argentina.

The difference from that tournament with the upcoming Olympics is that in Argentina, in addition to single dance duels, there were also mixed competitions. In Paris, however, it was decided to abandon them.