Breaking Culture Gets Its Moment on the Olympic Stage

Dancers brought the spirit of breaking to the world’s most elite sporting competition, making the most of the international platform.

Choi made her Olympic debut at the Paris Games, competing in the round-robin stage before being knocked out of the breaking event. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

PARIS — In the months leading up to the 2024 Olympics, Sunny Choi, a breaker who competes as B-Girl Sunny, grew concerned that breaking was becoming Olympified. Many of her peers, she noticed, were changing their dancing in anticipation of what the more corporate judges might want: “jam-packing their rounds with a lot of stuff,” she said. 

That, to her, defies the spirit of breaking. So on Friday, in breaking’s debut—and likely farewell—at the Olympics, she did the opposite.

“I really wanted to be true to me and not compromise anything,” she said. “And just leave it all out there on the floor. Because I think [for] my generation of breakers, it was all about being unique. It was all about showing your personality and being true to who you were. So that was my purpose in coming here. And I think I did it.”

Choi finished 12th of 17 and did not advance to the quarterfinals. But she had the experience that most breakers here said they were chasing: She showed the world who she is, and what breaking is. 

At times, that means acknowledging that breaking is an imperfect fit for the world’s most elite sporting competition. 

“It’s not really a sport,” said Antilai Sandrini (B-Girl Anti), of Italy, who finished 11th, adding that she was not caught up in the result, because breaking is not really about the result.

“It’s not just a sport,” Choi expanded. “It’s a dance. It’s an art form. It’s a culture. It’s a community first, and I think it’s a sport second.” 

As for the competition itself, she said, “I have a lot of the difficult moves that they’re doing. I just choose not to do them because, to me, they’re boring. I’ve already done them. So I’m moving on and doing what makes me happy.”

It’s hard to imagine Simone Biles describing gymnastics that way, or eschewing her hardest skills because she has already completed them. But breakers are doing more than trying to rack up points with judges. 

Choi said her long-term goal is to open a breaking gym in Queens. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Breaking is a language, a dialogue, started in the Bronx in the 1970s among mostly Black and Latino people. So it was notable that the crowd here in Paris was largely white. But Carlota Dudek (B-Girl Carlota), who was born in France, and is half Cuban, said she enjoyed showing people who don’t know much about her discipline. In the Athletes’ Village, she said, many people would ask her, “Break? What is that?” But she explained, and, “They came!” she said in French. And many breakers raved about the crowd, which packed the some 6,000 seats in its arena at La Concorde Urban Park and flowed into the neighboring skateboarding arena, where fans watched on a jumbotron.

Many breakers had worried that its addition to the Olympics would sanitize it, and early on, it did. Because of France’s strict copyright laws, breakers were told they would not have access to as much music as they usually do, and the qualifiers reflected that plan. However, the International Olympic Committee managed to license some 400 songs, which reopened the catalog.

“The qualifiers in the beginning I did not enjoy at all,” said Logan Edra (B-Girl Logistx). “At the gyms I grew up going to, it was a lot more raw. Even at the big events, there was a vibe. And there was just no vibe when I would go to those qualifiers. And it got way better. One of the biggest things was the music. They had breaks that we couldn't feel and dance to in the beginning, and so now that we had no music restriction, I’m really happy about that. It’s been a messy process, a roller coaster, up and down. But I’m just so happy with what everyone fought for in this journey because I feel like the culture pulled through.”

Edra and Choi both said they hope the increased attention will help create more places for kids of color to learn breaking; Choi said her long-term plan is to open a breaking gym in Queens.

In the meantime, breaking will resume on Saturday, when the men compete, then that will be it. It has been left off the program for the Los Angeles Games in 2028 and is unlikely to be added for Brisbane in ’32, so it might be a while before it returns to the Olympics. But its participants believe it has left its mark on the Olympics. And the Olympics has left its mark on them: Choi’s next activity—after a croissant or two—will be getting a tattoo of the rings.