Paris Olympics: What to know and who to watch during the breakdancing competition

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FILE - Logan Edra, also known as B-Girl Logistx, of the United States competes in the B-girl Red Bull BC One World Final at Hammerstein Ballroom on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, in Manhattan, New York. Breakdancing will make its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

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FILE - Liu Qingyi of China, known as B-girl 671, competes against Ami Yuasa of Japan, known as B-girl Ami during the final event of the 2022 World Breaking Championship in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. Breakdancing will make its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

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FILE - Victor Montalvo, also known as B-Boy Victor, of the United States, competes in the B-boy Red Bull BC One World Final at Hammerstein Ballroom on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, in New York. Breakdancing will make its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Olympics.(AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, File)

A roadmap to follow for the debut of breakdancing at the Paris Olympics:

Athletes to Watch

Victor Montalvo (B-boy Victor), United States: A breaker who describes himself as a student of old school b-boys from the founding era of hip-hop, the 30-year-old Montalvo, who is from Kissimmee, Florida, qualified for Paris by besting all other b-boys at the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championship in Belgium.

Sunny Choi (B-girl Sunny), United States: The 35-year-old Choi, a cheerful Queens, New York-bred breaker, has long been an ambassador for b-girls globally. She qualified for the Paris Games with her win at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile.

Philip Kim (B-boy Phil Wizard), Canada: Consistently ranked in the top three b-boys in the international breaking competitive community, Kim secured a spot for Paris when he came out on top at last year’s Pan American Games.

Dominika Banevič (B-girl Nicka), Lithuania: Banevič was the youngest in her category at last year’s WDSF World Breaking Championship, when she punched her ticket to Paris. Banevič turns 17 this month.

Storylines to Follow

While breaking and hip-hop both originated in The Bronx, New York, in the 1970s, the art forms have extended far beyond the U.S., highlighting themes of racial and economic inequality and subcultures around the world.

Breaking is being given a global stage this summer for the first time, and hip-hop’s global reach will be on display perhaps in a way that it never has before. While many fans are excited the genre is being recognized on a massive scale, others are skeptical of attempts to co-opt the culture, commercialize it further and impose a rigid competitive structure. The spirit of hip-hop and breaking has been rooted in local communities and centered around street battles and living a b-boy or b-girl lifestyle.

For the Paris Games, judges will score breakers using what’s known as the Trivium judging system. A panel of five judges scores each breaker on creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality. However, this system has its critics, who say it has been too heavily influenced by people who don’t understand breaking as an essential element of hip-hop culture.

Key Dates

The women’s competition is on Aug. 9, and the men’s competition is Aug. 10.

Reigning Champions

Because this is breaking’s debut at the Summer Games, there are no reigning Olympic champions.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Olympic Hightlights

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FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

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FILE - Ilona Maher of USA is tackled by Sharni Williams of Australia in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup 7’s championship held in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The main task for Maher, the breakout social media star on TikTok at the Tokyo Olympics, is winning a medal in Paris. (AP Photo/Halden Krog, File)

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FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

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Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

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USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)