Breakdancing, among four sports won a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics when the International Olympic Committee ratified their inclusion.President Thomas Bach made the announcement on December 7.
The other four sports that got the green light are surfing, skateboarding and sports climbing.
Skateboarding , sport climbing, and surfing will make their Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games , which will begin on July 23,2021.
The move from the International Olympic Committee comes at a time when the Games is looking to refresh the sports program in a bid to remain relevant to sponsors, broadcasters and younger fans.
The @Paris2024 sports programme has been approved. It includes these main features:
– 100% gender equality
– Four additional sports: Skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing and breaking
– More youth-focused events
– 10,500 athletes and 329 events#StrongerTogether— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) December 7, 2020
Breakdancing will be called breaking when competitors take to the floor in Paris.
“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. There is also a strong focus on youth,” IOC president Bach said.
The idea was proposed two years ago after trials at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, proved a success.
Meanwhile, the IOC also limited the total athlete quote for the Paris Games to be exactly 10,500 which is less than the recent Olympic Games. Also, there will be equal representation of men and women athletes in Paris Games .
In Tokyo Olympic Games, which has been postponed to 2021 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the participation of women is 48.8 percentage.
Weightlifting and boxing , meanwhile, saw biggest cuts in terms of the number of athletes the two sports can include at Paris Games.
