Breaking debuts at the Olympic Games, loud and colorful, in the latest chapter of the sport

PARIS – India Sardjoe is 18, has a mouth full of braces and is on the hunt.

“I really enjoy exchanging pins in the Olympic village,” she said on Friday, after taking part in the first Olympic break competition in La Concorde. The 2022 world champion, known in the pioneering game as B-Girl India, was one of the favorites entering the competition but finished just outside the medal bracket, losing the bronze medal match to China’s B-Girl 671, also known as Liu Qingyi.

In the end, Japanese B-Girl Ami, also known as Ami Yuasa, defeated Lithuanian B-Girl Nicka (Dominika Banevič) for the gold medal.

“I actually wasn’t focusing on medals at all,” Ami said. “For the final I just wanted to show my… everything. And I think I did that, yes.”

A large, enthusiastic and sometimes curious crowd, including Snoop Dogg in the afternoon session and IOC President Thomas Bach in the evening session, helped break in, a new sport here but which will not be part of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. There was intrigue in the afternoon when Afghanistan’s Manizha Talash unveiled a cape under her jersey reading ‘Free Afghan Women’ during her qualifying match against India. Manash, who was a member of the Refugee Olympic Team, a contingent of 37 displaced athletes from around the world, was officially disqualified from her race but had already lost it on points before showing her cape.

The debate over whether breaking amounts to running away from the past, steeped in black American culture by the dancing of young black teenagers in the Bronx in the early 1970s, quickly followed by Latino children in the city, will continue. But for those pushing for participation in the Games, after about a decade of lobbying and building form by breaking competitions around the world, Friday was a big moment.

Most importantly: People were watching on TV. Some, attentively. Of course that wasn’t the case universally loved. But what is that nowadays?

Issues of appropriation and erasure of the original culture of breaking need to be amplified and heard. But it was hard not to be impressed by the astonishing international flavor of the opening event here, which reflects the different viewpoints and histories of the estimated 30 million breakers worldwide.

The evening was loud and raucous, with a stage for the DJs and judges set up like a boombox, a tribute to the past.

The MCs Friday, Malik and Max, came from France and Portugal respectively. The DJs were American (DJ Fleg) and Polish (DJ Plash One). The music they played varied: “Heart ‘n Soul,” by Booker T. Averheart; “Family Affairs,” by MFSB; “Blow Your Whistle,” by DC’s go-go legends Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers; “Mu Afrika,” by The Rift Valley Brothers; “Tree!” by The Roots.

The final eight women came from France, Japan (B-Girl Ami and B-Girl Ayumi), China (B-Girl 671 and B-Girl Ying Zi), Ukraine (B-Girl Kate), France (B-Girl Syssy) , Netherlands (B-Girl India) and Lithuania (B-Girl Nicka). The two American breakers in the field, B-Girl Sunny (Sunny Choi) and B-Girl Logistx (Logan Edra) were eliminated before the quarterfinals. The American breaker B-Boy Victor (Victor Montalvo) is one of the favorites for a medal during the men’s competition on Saturday.

“To be honest, I haven’t really been able to process everything yet,” said Kate, full name Kateryna Pavlenko, who lost in the quarterfinals. ‘But I can’t believe it’s over. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. Now it’s done for me. It feels great. I think everyone did a great job, and I think the representation of breaking was super high with the b-girls. I’m very happy to have made it into the top eight – the best b-girls in the world, let’s put it that way.”

The athleticism of so many of the surf was astonishing as they rocked from top to bottom. B-Girl Ami, who seemed to have no solid backbone, dominated France’s B-Girl Syssy in the first quarter-final 3-0, and then won a 2-1 semi-final over India. B-Girl 671 seemed to somehow change direction as she balanced on her head. Nicka didn’t spin so much as she floated over the ground. Nicka defeated 671 in the semi-finals 2-1; 671 defeated India for the bronze.

Someone asked afterwards whether the tears came to her eyes because she was happy about winning bronze, or because she had lost a chance at gold.

“Both,” she said. “The first Olympic Games I go to, the medal, at first I am happy. But the battle also went a bit (badly). But I still keep going.”

From left to right, B-Girl Nicka (silver), B-Girl Ami (gold) and B-Girl 671 (bronze) show off their medals from the first Olympic break competition. (Elsa/Getty Images)

B-Girl Kate moved to Los Angeles just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Her family stays there. So it’s even more important for her to use breaking to send a message of hope and possibility to her people back home.

“It’s very important because I was born there,” she said Friday. “It shaped me as a person. It has made me who I am. Because of Ukraine, I thought it might not be fair to represent another country. I am Ukrainian. I was born and raised there. I left early. For me, I know a lot of b-boys and b-girls are looking at me, and I give them a little hope to represent someone they can look up to. And for me it is the highest reward ever. …If I can inspire or touch someone from Ukraine with my dance, I am happy.”

There will probably never be a happy marriage between the old and the new school of breaking. Maybe a marriage of convenience is the best thing you can do. The desire to make money and showcase breaking on larger platforms in the United States will likely make it impossible to keep it solely under the control and influence of the art form’s founders. But many among the new generation of breakers and breakers understand that attention should be paid to the founders and innovators who created dance, and on whose shoulders they stand.

“It’s a huge responsibility to raise the bar every time and keep raising the bar,” Nicka said Friday. “Because they did a fantastic job. Big respect for the OGs and the pioneers who invented all those moves. Without them it wouldn’t be possible. I am grateful to them.”

GO DEEPER

The journey of a Ukrainian breaker to the Olympic Games in Paris

(Top photo of B-Girl Ami during Friday’s breaking competition at the Olympics: Elsa/Getty Images)