Olympics

Breakdancing is now an Olympic sport? Yes, and Twitter has some thoughts about it

The Olympics announced on Monday that breakdancing will be added to the 2024 program in Paris.
The Olympics announced on Monday that breakdancing will be added to the 2024 program in Paris. Video screen grab from @Olympics

Breakdancing will become an official Olympic sport at the 2024 games in Paris, France.

The move, announced Monday by the International Olympic Committee, was made to attract a younger audience and the Olympic sport will be called “breaking,” according to The Associated Press.

It was proposed by Paris organizers almost two years ago after positive trials at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires,” AP reported. “Breaking passed further stages of approval in 2019 from separate decisions by the IOC board and full membership.”

Right on cue, social media was quick to react to the news.

Along with breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were also added to the program — with the latter three set to debut in the Tokyo Games, which were postponed until the summer of 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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 DanceSport Federation in a news release.

“The WDSF could not be prouder to have breaking included at Paris 2024, and we thank everyone who helped make it possible: the executive board of the IOC, the Paris 2024 organizers, the WDSF staff and, most importantly, the breaking community itself.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Breakdancing is now an Olympic sport? Yes, and Twitter has some thoughts about it."

TJ Macias
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
TJ Macías is a Real-Time national sports reporter for McClatchy based out of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Formerly, TJ covered the Dallas Mavericks and Texas Rangers beat for numerous media outlets including 24/7 Sports and Mavs Maven (Sports Illustrated). Twitter: @TayloredSiren
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