PARIS — Breaking — more commonly called breakdancing — is making its Olympic debut here at the 2024 Paris Games. The competition opens with the B-girls, and medals will be decided by the end of the day today. The B-boys will then close it out on Saturday.
USA TODAY Sports is bringing you everything you need to know, live updates and highlights as the competition unfolds. Follow along.
Breaking at the Olympics: What’s the format?
It’s a bit confusing — and completely new in the world of breaking. Rather than a straight-up bracket of one-on-one battles, the preliminary round will be round-robin style: Four groups of four breakers, with each one going two rounds against the other three in their group. From there, the top two B-girls in each group — as determined by who won the most rounds — will advance to the quarterfinals. The quarters, semis and finals will all be three rounds in a traditional bracket style.
Is breakdancing an Olympic sport?
Yes. Breaking is part of the new wave of sports that the International Olympic Committee has ushered in as part of a broader effort to appeal to younger fans and add an urban flair to the Summer Games. It follows the addition of sports such as skateboarding and surfing, which debuted at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.
When is breaking in the Olympics?
The B-Girls compete Friday, Aug. 9, the B-Boys go Saturday, Aug. 10/ The breaking competitions at the 2024 Paris Games will all be televised live on E!, with the women’s competition slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday and conclude with the finals, which start at 2 p.m. ET. The men’s competition will take place at the same times Saturday.
How is breaking scored?
Competitors will be judged on five categories: Technique, execution, musicality, originality and vocabulary. The scoring is fairly subjective, with each judge simply voting for the B-boy or B-girl who they think performed best in each category. There is no numerical scoring system like you might see in figure skating or gymnastics.
Vocabulary is one criteria to keep an eye on as the competition progresses. The judges want to see breakers display a variety of moves and styles across rounds. If they’re doing the same stuff in the final battle that they did in the first battle, they would theoretically be dinged for that.
Breakdancing Olympics 2024 Team USA
Sunny Choi (or B-girl Sunny) and Logan Edra (or B-girl Logistx) will represent Team USA on the women’s side. Choi won the 2023 Pan American Games, while Edra has had past success in Red Bull’s international breaking competition, BC One.
Sunny Choi: B-Girl to watch
Sunny Choi was drunk when she first encountered breaking. She was in her first year at Penn and was feeling a bit lost, as most college freshmen do. She was out late after imbibing and she saw some dancers breaking on campus and thought, “Oh, that looks fun.” The group of dancers invited her to practice and she quickly immersed herself in the scene at Penn and in the greater Philly breaking community. The former gymnast loved being upside down, but there was more to it for her.
“Over time, I really fell in love with exploring my body’s physical limits and artistic expressions,” the 34-year-old first-time Olympian said. “I had never really done anything creative in my life before.”
Despite her love for breaking, she stuck to a corporate track for the job and financial security and worked her way up to being a creative director at Estée Lauder. But when breaking was announced as an Olympic sport, she decided to bet on herself, quite her corporate job and went all in on breaking. She’s now headed to the Olympics at 34 years old. After the Games, she wants to work to open up a dance studio/community center in Queens.