Break dancing — or simply 'breaking' — is the latest youthful, seemingly gravity-defying sport to be included in the Olympic program. Meet the young Canadian athletes who will be contending for gold in Paris in 2024. Story by kerry_gillespie.
When Philip Kim first saw break dancers busking outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, he thought it looked super cool and that learning how to do it just might be useful, too.
Kim is Canada’s highest ranked b-boy, with multiple world titles, and he should be a serious contender at the sport’s Olympic debut in Paris in 2024. For years, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has been pushing for the addition of new freestyle and action sports, such as snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding, BMX, and climbing. Bach is looking to attract a younger audience and the new sponsors and broadcast dollars that come with that.
And in the ballroom of a downtown Toronto hotel, it was easy to see why the IOC is keen on the sport: It doesn’t require an expensive or specialized venue, the competition is short, high-energy and easy to broadcast, and the athletes are young and look like they’re having fun. B-boys and b-girls value originality in these unscripted routines but there are common elements of dance footwork, drops to the floor, spins, flares and freezes, where they hold an off-kilter handstand or some other challenging position. In some moves, athletes have multiple body parts on the floor, in others none at all as they move in ways that don’t seem entirely possible or safe.
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