You just might see a new kind of Olympian at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Eager to engage younger fans and those in urban areas, the organizing committee is recommending that break dancing be included in the competition.
Breaking—as it would be called in the Olympics—is popular all over the world. The sport received a lot of attention last fall when it debuted at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 2024 Summer Games, which will be held in Paris, France, would be a perfect setting for Breaking’s Olympic debut, officials say, because the country has more than 1 million break-dancers (only the U.S. has more).
These photos show some of the athletes (called b-boys and b-girls) who competed at the youth games. The acrobatic sport’s first-ever Youth Olympic gold medals went to B-Boy Bumblebee of Russia, 18, and B-Girl Ram of Japan, 17.
But break dancing is about more than awards, the athletes say. “Breaking has two elements,” B-Boy Shigekix of Japan, a bronze medalist, told Olympic.org. “One is sports, and one is arts. We need the stamina of athletes, but we also need to be artists and express our feelings.”