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Breakdancing to feature in 2024 Paris Olympics

International Olympic Committee says next Games have ‘strong focus on youth’

A breaking competitor at the World Urban Games in Budapest last year. Photograph: Little Shao/Reuters

Tue Dec 8 2020 - 09:08

Breakdancing is to make its Olympic debut at the 2024 Games in Paris, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced.

The sport, referred to as ‘breaking’, is confirmed as part of the event programme along with skateboarding, climbing and surfing – which will be retained after debuting at the Tokyo Games that have been delayed until next summer.

The IOC also said the Paris programme will see exactly 50 per cent male and female participation, following 48.8 per cent female participation in Tokyo, that mixed gender events will grow from 18 to 22, and that there will be reductions in the overall athlete quota and number of events, to 10,500 and 329 respectively.

IOC president Thomas Bach said in a statement: “With this programme, we are making the Olympic Games Paris 2024 fit for the post-corona world.

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“We are further reducing the cost and complexity of hosting the Games. While we will achieve gender equality already at the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, we will see for the first time in Olympic history the participation of the exact same number of female athletes as male athletes. There is also a strong focus on youth.”

The IOC has also announced that Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, who is also president of the country’s national Olympic committee, has been barred from the Tokyo Games.

The organisation said it had “come to the conclusion that it appears that the current NOC leadership has not appropriately protected the Belarusian athletes from political discrimination within the NOC, their member sports federations or the sports movement”, adding: “This is contrary to the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter, and therefore seriously affects the reputation of the Olympic Movement.”

The provisional measures adopted include Lukashenko and other members of the executive board of the Belarusian committee being excluded from all IOC events and activities.

The IOC said the measures were “applicable until further notice or until such time as a new NOC executive board is elected in February 2021 by the NOC general assembly”. – PA

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