Breakdancing to be an Olympic sport but squash and parkour miss out

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

Breakdancing will be an Olympic sport at the 2024 Games in Paris. Picture: AFP via Getty Images

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.

But there is no place for parkour, the street sport that developed from military obstacle course training.

Squash, billiards and chess were also unsuccessful in their bids to be included in the Paris Games.

The inclusion of ‘breaking’ fits with current IOC policy after it said priority would be given to sports with youth appeal or that would help achieve gender equality.

Breakdancing’s roots are in hip-hop and the competitors are known as b-boys and b-girls. They will be judged on technical skill, creativity and style.

The IOC 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.

“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.”

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