From The Bronx to La Concorde, via the back-alleys of Kabul and the banlieues that ring Paris like a vinyl record, breakdancing touched down on the global stage on Friday, bringing top-rocks, freezes and down-lows into the Olympic lexicon for the first time.
In the same square where Marie Antoinette was sent to the guillotine two-and-a-quarter centuries ago, the world’s top 32 B-girls executed their moves in a series of face-offs against a backdrop of tracks curated by the competition’s resident DJs, Plash One and Fleg.
Among the history-makers were 671, a Chinese teenager understood to be the first Olympic athlete without a letter to her name, and Talash, representing the Refugee Team, who fled Afghanistan with her 12-year-old brother when the Taliban’s arrival forced her breakdancing club to close.
On her solitary appearance in the pre-qualifier, and to roars of approval from a capacity crowd at the hugely successful Urban Park, Talash ripped off her jacket to reveal a bib with the words “Free Afghan Women’. “I wanted to show people what is possible,” she said afterwards in the briefest of media interviews.
Snoop Dogg officially opened the competition to the sound of his classic Drop It Like It’s Hot. The round-robin phase comprised four groups of four, in which each breaker faced off against the other with the top two in each section advancing straight to the knockout phase later on Friday.
A panel of nine judges – almost certainly the first officials in Olympic history to enter their seats via a group performance of the activity on which they were about to adjudicate – scored each breaker based on six criteria: technique, vocabulary (variety of moves), execution, performativity, musicality and originality.
16-year-old Dutch B-girl India was the first breaker on the Olympic stage, throwing down a series of power moves to unanimously out-score Talash and advance to the competition proper.
“I’m super-happy to be here, and I’m proud to be the first one,” said India, the 2022 world champion. “It means a lot. It is the first time that breaking has been on such a high platform – it’s the biggest showcase in the world.”
Also in the opening phase, the crowd warmed to local favourite Ssey, a 17-year-old who caused a minor beef with her Australian opponent Raygun by beginning her series of acrobatic downrocks before her rival had properly concluded her routine.
Dismissive hand gestures and in-your-face moves were all part of the spectacle, although all the breakers embraced afterwards, in keeping with the spirit of seizing the chance to put their sport on show. It could be their only chance – breaking is not currently on the programme for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Raygun (real name Rachael Gunn) is a 36-year-old academic from Sydney who is more than twice the age of most of her competitors. She was expected to exit at the group stage, but is nevertheless determined to help pave the way towards a long-standing legacy.
“I’m super excited to be a part of bringing breaking to the world,” she said. “It is such a phenomenal atmosphere, and a privilege to get this opportunity.
“All my moves are original. Creativity is really important to me. Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn’t. I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is all about.”
