Breaking at the 2024 Paris Olympics: format and rules of the competition explained

Breaking, referred to by some as breakdancing, is making its very first appearance in the summer Olympics at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, which means many might not be overly familiar with its format and rules, as we are with other staples of the sporting competition.

Why is breakdancing called breaking?

Plenty of casual observers would likely call the discipline breakdancing rather than breaking, which is how it’s officially known in the Olympics. There’s a simple reason for that: breakdancing is not the real name of the activity, which originated in the Bronx in the 1970s.

A “break” is an instrumental section of a song composed only of the dancing beat, also called the “breakbeat”. When it made a mainstream media breakthrough, ‘dancing to the break’ turned into breakdancing, even if the breaking community didn’t approve.

How does breaking work at the 2024 Olympic Games?

There are two breaking competitions are the 2024 Olympics, one for men and one for women. However, they aren’t referred to as such, instead called B-Boys (men) and B-Girls (women).

For followers of certain soccer tournaments, such as the Champions League, World Cup or Copa América, the breaking format will be very familiar. There are 16 competitors in each tournament, split into four groups of four the first round robin stage.

Each breaker effectively dances off against the other three in their group for one minute, with a panel of judges rating their performances based on technique, vocabulary (number and variety of moves), execution, musicality and originality.

The breaker that scores the most points wins the match, and the two that perform the best in each group qualify for the first knockout stage, the quarterfinals. From then on, the winner of each match-up progresses to the following round, culminating in the gold medal match. The beaten semifinalists face off in the bronze medal match.

Breaking removed from Los Angeles 2028 Olympics

If you have forgotten all that by the time the next Olympic Games come around in Los Angeles in 2028, it’s perhaps not worth worrying too much. Despite breaking making its debut in Paris, it will not feature at the next edition of the Olympics in California, making way for the introduction of flag football, cricket, squash, lacrosse, and baseball/softball.