Breaking is an urban dance style incorporating acrobatic movements and stylised footwork. Photo: Unsplash / Ilja Tulit
The modern Olympic Games are more than a century old, and nearly every time they roll around, more events are added.
The Athens Olympic Games 1896 showcased more than 40 events, covering athletics, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, shooting, and tennis.
There are 329 medal events scheduled this year, down from 339 at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, held in 2021.
In December, 2014, Olympic Agenda 2020 was adopted, changing the process of establishing the Olympic programme. As part of this new process, host cities can propose one or more additional sports for their Games. Sports must comply with various charters.
The Tokyo Games were the first to take advantage of this change, and we saw the Olympic debut of sports such as climbing, surfing, skateboarding, and karate, as well as events such as BMX freestyle and 3x3 basketball.
The International Olympic Committee in recent years has focused on boosting the Games' "youth appeal". As part of that, in 2024, breaking has been added to the programme.
Sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding will remain on the programme after their success at Tokyo, while karate has been dropped.
Sports, disciplines, and events
There are several new events at the Summer Games in Paris, but only one new sport: Breaking. Or breakdancing, for the uninitiated.
The 2024 Games will also feature new events in athletics, boxing, canoe slalom, sailing, shooting, and sport climbing.
First, it's worth recapping the difference between sports, disciplines, and events. The Olympic programme comprises all three.
A sport is governed by an international sport federation, an NGO recognised by the IOC, responsible for the integrity of their sport at the international level.
A discipline is a branch of a sport, comprising one or more events. And an event is a competition in a sport or discipline. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded in every event at the Olympic Games.
Breaking
Co-founder and leader of Aotearoa New Zealand Breaking Association Dujon Cullingford said while no Kiwi dancers had qualified, he would be supporting the Australians (Jeff Dunne, 16, and Rachael Gunn, 36) competing in Paris.
The 2018 Youth Olympic Games was the first Olympic event to showcase breaking, an urban dance style incorporating acrobatic movements and stylised footwork, borne from 1970s block parties in the Bronx, New York. International competitions began in the 1990s.
We already know it won't be at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. This has disappointed a lot of athletes and fans, given the dance sport originated in the United States. And makes it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those going to Paris.
A breaking game or match is called a "battle". The athletes are called B-Boys and B-Girls. There are 16 of each at the Games.
Dancers face off in one-on-one battles navigated by a master of ceremonies to music randomly played by a DJ. That's important: "We'd never know what song we're going to get in any competition," Cullingford said.
Although dancers can "loosely" choreograph routines, ultimately, they must improvise and respond to the music.
Breaking terminology
First, let's talk about the name of the sport itself. Cullingford told RNZ it's called "breaking". Break dancing was a term coined by the media when it went mainstream in the 1980s. Cullingford only uses it when explaining the sport to someone who mightn't be familiar with it.
The three basic elements of breaking are top rock, down rock, and freeze.
Freeze is when the breaker freezes in an unusual position - such as on their head or hands - in the middle of their routine. Top rock refers to all moves that are performed while standing up. Down rock is the most crucial and often the highlight of the performance. It involves all moves done on the floor, such as spins, transitions and, most importantly, power moves.
Power moves: these are the gravity-defying, acrobatic movements that breaking is known for. The flare is a common move that looks like something you would see on a pommel horse in artistic gymnastics. It involves balancing the torso on alternating arms, and swinging the legs underneath in circles.
An air flare, as the name suggests, is done upside down, while hopping from arm to arm and moving in circles.
Side note: The most consecutive breakdance air flares is 94, and was achieved by an 11-year-old in China, in 2021.
When to watch it
The inaugural Olympic competition will take place on 9 and 10 August (central European time) at Place de la Concorde. The women compete on the first day, the men on the second.
If you are watching from New Zealand, you will need to be up at 2am to see the breaking B-Girls pre-qualifier battles on 10 August. The finals are at the more manageable time of 7.15am that day.
The B-Boys round robin also starts at 2am the next day, 11 August. The quarterfinals will be at 6am, semifinals at 6.45am, and finals at 7.15am.
Scoring
Judging is complex, Cullingford explained. Methods vary from competition to competition. In Paris, judges will score the breakers based on five categories:
* Vocabulary (variation and quantity of moves)
* Musicality
* Originality
* Technique
* Execution.
Each category makes up 20 percent of the total score.
Battles are best-of-three rounds, also known as throwdowns. Each breaker has 60 seconds to complete a routine in a throwdown.
The Games will showcase some big personalities, from different cultures and backgrounds, Cullingford said. Some athletes specialise in tricks and high power, he added. Others are more stylistic. You've got your footwork cats, and your power heads.
Athletes can be penalised for misbehaviour, and have reportedly been told they can't trash talk.
And on that note, there has been some concern that the Olympics will sanitize the sport - steeped in culture - to appeal to a wider audience.
But like "any other sport" we can expect to see some "angst and aggression", Cullingford said.
Sport climbing
Sport climbing is a relatively young and modern sport. Nearly 40 percent of climbers are under 18, according to the International Federation of Sport Climbing.
At the Tokyo Games, climbers competed in a unique format combining three disciplines - boulder, lead and speed climbing - for a single medal event. The format proved controversial, RNZ sports correspondent Dana Johannsen has explained: Bouldering and lead are more aerobic disciplines in which the emphasis is on problem solving, requiring a very different skill set to that required for an explosive, vertical scramble.
Sarah Tetzlaff and Julian David will be New Zealand's first Olympic speed climbing representatives.
Speed climbing is a sprint up a 15-metre-high wall, with a five-degree overhang. The hand and foot holds are always positioned in the same spot, fixed at the same angle. It takes the top male climbers in the world less than five seconds to clamber up the wall, while the women's world record sits at just over six seconds.
Fortunately for Tetzlaff and David, the IOC allocated climbing an additional medal for the Paris Games, allowing for a separate speed climbing event.
In bouldering, athletes climb a 4.5m-high wall, without ropes, in a set time limit. The winner is whoever reaches the highest point on the wall with the fewest attempts. The routes are very difficult.
In the lead event, athletes again have a set time - and just one attempt - to climb as high as they can on an unfamiliar 15m wall.
Scores from the bouldering and lead portions are combined.
Surfing
New Zealand is also sending two surfers to the surfing competition in Tahiti: Billy Stairmand and Saffi Vette. It'll be Stairmand's second Olympic Games (he placed ninth in Tokyo), and Vette's first.
Surfers perform manoeuvres and tricks on a wave. Judges score them on their variety, type, and difficulty. Surfers are also judged on their speed, power, and flow (how seamlessly one move flows into the next).
Unlike the site of surfing's debut at Tokyo, where surfers could choose from several waves breaking on the sandy ocean floor, Teahupo'o, the surf wave of the 2024 competition, is a fast-moving, barrelling left-hand wave, breaking over a shallow reef. The village has hosted world surfing competitions for decades.
Skateboarding
The Paris Games will showcase the world's best skateboarders competing in the two most popular disciplines: park and street.
The park competition takes place on a varied course combining bowls and bends. The athletes are judged by the height and speed of the tricks they carry out during jumps, as well as their ability to use the entire surface and all obstacles. They perform three, 45-second runs, with the best counting as their final score.
Street events take place on a course mimicking an urban environment, with stairs, ledges, curbs, and handrails. Again, athletes perform a range of tricks and are also judged on how well they control their board during the two, 45-second runs and five tricks they carry out.
