Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón started breaking as a kid in the Bronx in 1977, at the dawn of hip hop, before the musical genre even had its name. Breaking was a style of dance, sure, but also an art form. A cultural cornerstone. A part of life.
It's understandable, then, that if you had told him 43 years ago that breaking would one day become an Olympic sport, he wouldn't have believed it.
"I probably would’ve been like, 'Aw, shut up,'" Crazy Legs said with a laugh.
On Monday, however, that move became official, with the announcement that breaking will be included at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. It will be the latest new-wave sport to join the Olympic program, following sports like climbing, skateboarding and surfing, all of which will debut in Tokyo next summer.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach
has praised the addition of the new sports as events that will make the Summer Games "more gender balanced, more youthful and more urban."
"We have had a clear priority," Bach said after the IOC executive board's meeting Monday, "and this is to introduce sports which are particularly popular among the younger generations. And also to take into account the urbanization of sport."
the horrors of dance combat
dancing
