Olympic 2024 Paris Games

On Friday, August 9th, appropriately in the City of Light, breaking will finally get its portion of the Olympic spotlight, four years after formally becoming a part of the Paris 2024 program.
With that, the B-girls and B-boys are all set. Truly, they have been prepared.

Just before the tournament at La Concorde, Canadian B-Boy Phil Wizard told Olympics.com, “It’s been a long process for us, and a very new process for all of us.” I couldn’t agree more. It takes almost two years to prepare, and then everything comes together on a single day.

“So there’s a lot of excitement; there’s a lot of nervousness. You can see the best of the best on the floor, but it seems like we’re all just waiting for the world to shatter.

“There will be a lot of people watching, and I’m grateful for all of the attention it’s getting,” said Japan’s flagbearer and celebrity B-Boy Shigekix. I suppose we’re all a little anxious and enthusiastic.

“We’re all excited, but as a competitor, I need to be business as usual.” Trying too hard or wanting it too much doesn’t bring out the best in me.

“I’m going to be a pro about this—focus on who I am and what I do.”
Update: Excitement grows
The two-day tournament starts with the B-Girls on Friday, followed by the B-Boys the following day.

In little more than five hours, they will have to struggle through a round robin, quarterfinals, semi-finals, and the medal matches. Unlike your ordinary breaking event, which is generally extended over a few days, the Olympic format is one day. It is not for the faint-hearted.

Some have modified their exercises specifically for the games, such as Shigekix, who has been recreating the five-hour slog throughout training camp back in Japan. Others, like USA B-Girl Sunny, have not altered much in their program.

Everyone’s approach seems to differ, but there is a unanimous feeling of not knowing what to expect from a completely novel tournament.

“It’s going to be different every single time I get up there, and I think I don’t want to put a box around what this experience could be,” Sunny added. “So I’m trying to just be as open-minded as possible, and I hope everyone else here is trying to do the same.

“It’s like every single emotion that you can think of is what I’m feeling right now—excited, grateful, frustrated, anxious, stressed.“ I don’t know, like, basically everything. I’ve run the full gamut, so I’m just going through various emotions at different times.”

The medals on offer here might be life-changing for many of the B-boys and B-girls, but the games are not all about victories and defeats for them.

“To be completely honest, of course I want to win. I believe everyone’s here to win,” Phil Wizard said. “When I’m on that stage, I’m going to go for the gold, and I’m here to win. I think exactly like everyone else.

“But honestly—and I’ve said this before—more than anything, I’m excited for people to see breaking. I’m thrilled for many new faces to light up when they see what we do and for people to realize it.”

For others, such as Shigekix, it is the last destination on a long, twisting route that started with the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, when breaking was presented on the Olympic stage and led to its inclusion at Paris.

“That was one of the top two experiences in my entire life,” said Shigekix, who won bronze there. “The experience helped shape who I am right now, and I’m so excited to find out this weekend how that experience will determine my time in Paris.”

At these games, there’s one excursion for each of the 33 B-boys and B-girls. But Shigekix’s Japanese teammate, Hiro10, summed it best what the weekend will be like for them, the sport, and their newfound worldwide audience.

“I feel great. No, I mean it. When I say fantastic, I mean terrific,” Hiro10 said. “This is the greatest feeling. I don’t know what more to tell you; the word fantastic is the only word that comes to mind.“ When someone says they want to attempt to have fun, it suggests they’re not having amusing. But everything is fantastic here, period. I’m having a blast.“ It’s simply completely fantastic. That’s all there is to say.”