Breakdancing was one of four new sports along with skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing to get the Olympic green light on Monday for inclusion at the 2024 Paris Games.
The four sports were included as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board met to confirm the Paris 2024 programme.
Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing have already been added to the programme for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which will take place in 2021 after being postponed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The introduction of breaking was “one of the results of the Olympic Agenda 2020,” Bach said. “We had a clear priority to introduce sports (that are) particularly popular among the younger generation and taking into consideration the urbanisation of sport.”
Breakdancing, which grew up alongside hip hop in the South Bronx of New York in the 1970s and is officially known in sport terms as “breaking”, appeared at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, in the form of head-to-head “battles”.
Russia’s Sergei Chernyshev, competing under the nickname Bumblebee, won the first breakdancing gold medal for boys in that event, while Japan’s Ramu Kawai won the girls’ title.
“Today is a historic occasion not only for b-boys and b-girls but for all dancers around the world,” said Shawn Tay, president of the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF).
“The WDSF could not be prouder to have breaking included at Paris 2024… It was a true team effort to get to this moment and we will redouble our efforts in the lead-up to the Olympic Games to make sure the breaking competition at Paris 2024 will be unforgettable.”
