The International Olympic Committee has decided to officially designate breakdancing as an Olympic sport for the 2024 Paris Games. It joins three other new events: skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.
Breakdancing first appeared in Olympic territory as an event at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018. Yet the decision to include it as an event at the 2024 Games wasn’t universally hailed.
Australian squash champ Michelle Martin said the games have become a “mockery” with the move. She has lobbied for years to get squash included.
“The Olympics was all about a score or it was a running race. There was a definitive answer and results to sports,” she told the Australia Associated Press. “You bring in all these judging things and it just gets so corrupt and so out of control. I just don’t get it anymore.”
However, British breakdancer Karam Singh told The Guardian that including breakdancing at the Olympics will give the sport more recognition.
“It will attract young people who may not follow some of the traditional sports,” Singh said.
The committee also announced that the Paris Games will feature 100% gender equality in its athlete quotas. Mixed gender events will be increased from 18 in Tokyo to 22 in Paris.
The decisions put “gender equality and youth at the heart of the Paris” games, the committee stated.