The Olympics have been going on for a pretty long time now—we’re coming up on the 33rd installment this summer—but the global competition is anything but stale. One big reason? The Games are evolving all the time, and new sports and events are continually added to the mix to bring in some novelty (and new generations of fans!).
This summer’s Paris Games will showcase competitions across 32 sports, including tons of classic fan favorites we’d expect to see at the Olympics, like gymnastics, track and field, swimming, and a whole bunch more. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will also be introducing one completely new sport for 2024: breaking. After first being included at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, the sport will make its Summer Games debut in Paris.
For everything to know about the new Olympic sport—plus important intel on a few updates to some existing ones—keep on reading, and get psyched to catch lots of brand new action this summer.
First off, what exactly is breaking?
The Olympics organization describes breaking—also known as breakdancing—as an urban style of dance rooted in hip hop culture. It originated in the 1970s in the Bronx and later expanded internationally, with the first global breaking competitions held in the 1990s.
It’s essentially a dance-off style competition where athletes showcase a combo of acrobatic moves, fancy footwork, and stylized improv. A big component of breaking competitions is the DJ, who is in charge of the music. Athletes—or B-boys and B-girls, as they’re called—must adapt their dance moves on the fly to whatever beat the DJ drops, which brings an element of novelty and surprise to each showdown.
How is breaking scored?
Breaking competitions involve athletes going up against each other in a one-on-one battle format. Basically, they take turns performing their moves in what’s known as a “throw down.” These are brief—roughly 60 seconds—and each athlete usually executes about two to five of them in a competition.
Dancers perform three types of movements: top rock (standing moves), down rock (floor moves), and freeze (held poses).
A panel of judges, who are usually breakdancers themselves, evaluates the throw downs and rates them on six criteria: creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity, and musicality. After every round, the judges share their scores. In the end, the dancer with the most points wins.
At the 2024 Games, 16 B-boys and 16 B-girls from around the world will compete for medals, with separate competitions held for the men and women.
Who’s competing in breaking at its very first Olympics?
Out of the 32 total athletes competing, four dancers (two men and two women) are from the US, NBC News reports. So far, we know two of them: Sunny Choi and Victor Montalvo.
Choi, who is from Queens, got into breaking as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, where she joined the school’s club, as her Team USA bio details. In 2012, she started competing internationally, and last year she became the first American woman breakdancer to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Montalvo, the current highest-ranking American male breaker in the world, is from Kissimmee, Florida. He started breaking thanks to his dad and uncle, early promoters of the sport who helped popularize it in Mexico nearly 40 years ago, per Team USA.
When can I watch breaking debut at the Games?
We’ll all need to practice a little patience for this one. Breaking won’t debut until the tail end of the 2024 Olympics. The women’s competition will be held Friday, August 9, and the men’s will follow on Saturday, August 10, with the closing ceremonies happening the very next day. Both the women’s and men’s events will take place at La Concorde, an urban park in the heart of Paris that’s doubling as an Olympic venue.
Okay, so what about the updates to other sports?
Breaking is the only new sport at the 2024 Games, but some existing ones are getting refreshed with updates. According to the Olympics.com and NBC Olympics, these include:
- A new format for sport climbing that expands the number of events, athletes, and medals. The new events include speed climbing (which is all about how fast an athlete can scale a wall) and combined boulder and lead (which tests how high they can go). At the 2020 Tokyo Games, there was just one combined event per gender that mashed these three challenges together (speed, boulder, and lead).
- A new event in canoe slalom called kayak cross, where four athletes will race each other in real time, instead of just competing solo against the clock.
- Updates to the format of the modern pentathlon, which include a shortened competition window of just 90 minutes (versus over the course of a whole day) and all the action taking place at one venue (instead of being spread out across several).
- A men’s competition and a team acrobatic routine for artistic swimming.
- A new weight class for women’s boxing (and also one fewer on the men’s side).
- Two new kite events for sailing, plus a bunch of updates to the type of boats.
- A new mixed skeet team event in shooting (and the removal of the mixed team trap event).
- A new marathon race walk mixed relay, which will replace the men’s 50 kilometer race walk event within the broader sport of “athletics,” which encompasses all the track and field events.
- Updates to the competition structure of men’s and women’s volleyball, with teams playing fewer matches (three versus five) before advancing out of the pool phase.
- A reduction in the number of weight classes (10 versus 14) for weightlifting.
When and where can I watch all this go down?
The 2024 Games will take place from Friday, July 26 to Sunday, August 11, with the opening and closing ceremonies happening on those dates, respectively, and the majority of competitions occurring during the few weeks in between. NBC will host all US coverage of the 2024 Games—you can check out their full schedule here, along with details on all the different ways you can tune in.
SELF is your one-click source for all things Summer Olympics. Read our latest coverage of the Paris Games here.
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