Breakdancing to be recognised as an Olympic Sport

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have added breakdancing to their medal events programme – officially declaring it a competitive Olympic sport for the 2024 Paris games.

Confirmed by the IOC on 7th December 2020, the dance form will be referred to as ‘breaking’: a name originating from its 1960s and ’70s roots in New York City, referring to the isolated drum breaks looped by hip-hop DJs.

The decision was made to attract a younger audience to the Olympics and, as president of the committee Thomas Bach put it, as an attempt to make the competition more “more gender balanced, more youthful and more urban”.

Breakdancing will join other newly added sports such as skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.

Competitive breakdancing, which is considered highly acrobatic, was trialled at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where contestants faced each other in one-on-one dance-offs. 

In 2024, the breaking dance-offs will take place at Place de la Concorde in Paris.