During a meeting with Executive Board members on December 7, the International Olympics Committee have decided to include Breakdancing, Surfing, Skateboarding and Sports Climbing for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Surfing, Skateboarding and Sports Climbing are also the part of Tokyo Olympics 2020 which is now scheduled in 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Last year, the Paris 2024 organizing committee proposed the inclusion of breakdancing, surfing, skateboarding, and sports climbing. Under the new IOC rules, the host cities can hand-pick four sports of their choice and propose them to the committee.
Shawn Tay, President of World DanceSport Federation (WDSF), said, “Today is a historic occasion not only for b-boys and b-girls but for all dancers around the world. The WDSF could not be prouder to have breaking included at Paris 2024. The breaking competition in Paris 2024 will be unforgettable.”
The IOC also trimmed the overall events for Paris to 329 from 339 events of the Tokyo Games, while they increased mixed-gender events from 18 in Tokyo to 22 for Paris. The committee also capped the total athlete quota to 10,500. There will also be exactly 50% men and 50% women athletes in Paris.
Thomas Bach, IOC President, said, “With this programme, we are making the Olympic Games Paris 2024 fit for the post-corona world. While we will achieve gender equality already at the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, we will see for the first time in Olympic history the participation of the exact same number of female athletes as male athletes.”
Breakdancing is also known as B-boying or B-girling. It is an athletic style of dance, originated from the United States of America. The official name of the dance in terms of sport is Breaking. Breaking first appeared at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, in the form of head-to-head battles.