Team USA wants breakdancing gold medal at 2024 Olympics ‘to bring some of that shine back to the community’
Sunny Choi received clear instructions from his fellow New Yorkers: bring home a gold medal, where his sport began.
“I don’t know how often people say, ‘You have no choice. You have to take this home to New York,’” said the 35-year-old breaker, who was born in Tennessee but now lives in Queens.
Choi is one of four Team USA b-boys and b-girls, as the competitors are called, competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic GamesAt a press conference on Tuesday, all expressed pride in being able to represent the roots of the sport, also known as breakdancing, in its Summer Games begin.
“We’re trying to pay homage to where we come from, where this dance originated, and we want to give some of that shine back to the community as we take the big stage,” Choi said.
While the sport has its origins in the 1960s in New York, international competitions have been taking place since the 1990s, and it made its debut at the 2018 Youth Olympics. Now, in 2024, it is reaching its biggest stage yet.
“We’re going to have all eyes on us, so I just want to make sure everyone understands what this dance is and what hip-hop is about, because it’s about peace, unity and fun,” said Viktor Montalvo, another breaker on Team USA.
A DJ will provide the music – participants will not know the selection in advance – while the competition takes place on the Place de la Concorde.
“It’s going to feel like a party,” said breaker Jeffrey Louis, “because of the DJ providing the music, the atmosphere, we have the dancers, we have the audience.”
As Montalvo says: “We’ve already made history, so why not take advantage of it?”
What is the break schedule and when does it start?
The women’s competition kicked off at 10 a.m. ET on Friday, with the final battle taking place at 3:23 p.m. ET. The men’s events will take place at the same times on Saturday.
Over the course of the five-hour competition, the 16 breakers will compete in groups of four in one-minute battles. The dancers will be scored by a panel of judges on their musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique and execution. The top two from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, then the semifinals, and the best-of-three medal round will determine who wins the competition. wins gold.
