Breakdancing Proposed as Olympic Sport for 2024 Games
As if we needed any more proof that hip-hop went from the Bronx to taking over the world, breakdancing has officially been proposed as a new sport in the Olympics by organizers for the 2024 games in Paris.. According to a report from CNN published Thursday (Feb. 21), this proposal also includes surfing, climbing and skateboarding.
A spokesperson from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released a statement following the news, revealing a little insight into the direction that they're looking to go.
"We are pleased to see that Paris 2024's proposal for new sports to the Olympic programme is very much in line with the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, which is striving to make the Olympic programme gender-balanced, more youth-focused and more urban," the statement reads.
The official Twitter page for Paris 2024 also released a statement.
"Urban sport, universal and popular with more than one million B-Boys and B-Girls in France, we propose to bring breakdance and its famous battles to the games," the tweet said.
Previously, breakdancing made its debut at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but has yet to make the big leagues.
While there aren't many obvious connections to hip-hop, the culture does have a lot of fans in Olympians, and some artists have even part Just last year, Chance The Rapper was enlisted to help produce the 50th anniversary of the Special Olympics in his city of Chicago. Meanwhile, Olympic competitors have often cited hip-hop music as their source of inspiration, including Slovenian snowboarder Tit Štante, who competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics with #FreeMeekMill written on his snowboard, and accomplished swimmer Michael Phelps, who often shared his love for Lil Wayne, Eminem and Future in interviews.
The IOC has until December 2020 to make a final decision on whether breakdancing and any of the other three proposed sports will make the cut for Paris 2024.
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