Breaking at the 2024 Summer Olympics

Having become a cornerstone of the Hip-Hop movement, promoting values of peace, unity, and creative expression, breaking made its début at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games and was selected as one of the four additional sports for the 2024 Olympic Games, alongside surfing, skateboarding, and climbing. This decision reflected the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee’s desire to meet several challenges, including taking the Games outside traditional stadiums, reaching a new audience, and connecting sport with culture. In France, this dual affiliation with art and sport was demonstrated by breaking’s association with the French Dance Federation and the fact that the French team trains at INSEP (National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance).

The breaking events of Paris 2024 took place on 9-10 August, in a transformed Place de la Concorde turned into a gigantic urban park that hosted 5,800 spectators.

The sixteen breakers were divided into four groups of four. During the duels in this qualifying phase, each participant had two rounds of about 60 seconds against their opponent. At the end of the battles, the top two from each group, a total of eight dancers, advanced to the final bracket. In the final bracket, dancers performed three rounds each during a battle (instead of two=.

In practice, athletes face off in direct confrontations, called battles. Each battle consists of one-on-one rounds, alternating between the dancers. Dancer A goes first for 30, 45, or even 60 seconds if inspired, followed by their opponent. They get one round in the group phase and two rounds starting from the quarterfinals. Each round is judged by nine judges. One point is awarded to the winner of each round. These points also determine the rankings for the quarter-finals. In the event of a tie (possible only in the group stages), the judges’ individual votes are tallied to break the tie. In this case, the dancer with the most votes wins.

Athletes are evaluated on five criteria: first, on technique and the complexity of their moves. They are also assessed on the execution and flow of their movements. Next, the judges score musicality, which is the dancer’s connection to the music. During battles, a DJ selects the tracks, which the athletes hear for the first time during their performance and must improvise to. Dancers must be in rhythm and follow the music.

B-boys are also judged on the variety of their moves, also known as vocabulary. This includes footwork, acrobatic poses or power moves, and freezes. Each round should have meaning and tell a story. During battles, it’s common for dancers to respond by imitating their opponent’s moves and adding new challenges.

The composition of a round with these various elements is not imposed or predefined. Lastly, originality is another key criterion. Positioned between sport and culture, dancers must showcase their creativity, personality, and style in their performance. Penalty points can be given if a dancer disrupts or prevents their opponent from performing their round.

Instead of assigning a numerical score to each criterion, judges use a digital slider that moves toward the breaker who wins that face-off in the given category. If Breaker A demonstrates better technique than Breaker B, the judges will slide the cursor to A’s side, either slightly or completely. Each of the five criteria accounts for 20% of the final decision. Based on the balance of the sliders in these five categories, a dancer wins the battle.