What sport was Paris 2024 approved?

The Olympic rings are unveiled in a ceremony at Place du Trocadero next to the Eiffel Tower after Paris wins the 2024 Olympic Games bid in 2017. Photo: EPA

With a debut for break dancing, surfing to be held in Tahiti, and a pledge for 50 per cent female athlete participation, Paris promises a lot of ‘firsts’Paris Games president Tony Estanguet vows there will be cheap tickets, free-for-all opening ceremony, and open torch-bearing applications

Published: 3:30pm, 3 Apr, 2022

Updated: 3:30pm, 3 Apr, 2022

The Olympic rings are unveiled in a ceremony at Place du Trocadero next to the Eiffel Tower after Paris wins the 2024 Olympic Games bid in 2017. Photo: EPA

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Despite significant doubts about the wisdom of going ahead with the Tokyo Olympics - even a year on from its initial postponement - with the coronavirus pandemic still raging, the Games have proven a triumph, packed with incident, astonishing personal stories and remarkable achievements.

Spectators gripped by the action in their living rooms across the world have been particularly enthralled by the new sports added to the 2020 roster like skateboarding, mountain biking, sport climbing and surfing.

From the 12 and 13-year-old competitors like Britain’s Sky Brown executing gravity-defying tricks and collecting medals at the Ariake Urban Sports Park to the climbers scrambling up artificial walls to slam a buzzer at the summit in less than six seconds, the new additions have kept audiences rapt and ushered in a next generation of household names.

Follow Tokyo Olympics 2021: Latest medals and updates

For those already looking ahead to the next installment of the Summer Games, Paris 2024, the good news is that all four sports will be back next time around and joined by a potentially even more thrilling discipline: break dancing.

Explaining the surprise addition, the head of the Paris organising committee Tony Estanguet said in June 2019 that the emphasis would be on appealing to youth and ensuring the Games were “more urban” and “more artistic”.

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is keen to set a new standard for inclusive, gender-balanced and youth-centred games,” the Paris Games says on its website.

“Paris 2024 submitted its proposal to the IOC to integrate four new sports that are closely associated with youth and reward creativity and athletic performance. These sports are breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing. All four are easy to take up and participants form communities that are very active on social media. Over the next five years, the inclusion of these events in the Olympic Games will help inspire millions of children to take up sport.”

Break dancing, or “breaking”, was a hit with the crowds when it was included at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the men’s competition was won by Russia’s Sergei Chernyshev (AKA “Bumblebee”) and the women’s by Ramu Kawai (AKA “Ram”) of Japan.

Other sports that campaigned for inclusion among the 32 to be showcased in 2024 but which were ultimately unsuccessful were chess, billiards and squash, while baseball and karate will not be returning next time out.

Because of the suspension of the Tokyo Games last summer, the next installment of the Olympics is now just three years away, taking place in the French capital from 26 July to 11 August 2024.

Fabian Ramella/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Breaking has been confirmed as one of four additional sports approved for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were also provisionally added to the 2024 program by the Organising Committee in June 2019. Breaking and sport climbing first appeared as medal events at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018, while skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were previously approved to make their Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games.

In February 2019, organizers first proposed adding breaking as a new Olympic sport in Paris. Tony Estanguet, a former Olympian and head of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, said at the time that new sports would make the Games "more urban" and "more artistic."

A final decision on adding breaking to the 2024 Games wasn't supposed to be reached until after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Despite the Summer Games' postponement amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee proceeded with its scheduled meeting this month.

Breakdancing started in the 1970s in the Bronx as a part of hip-hop culture and eventually spread worldwide. At the 2018 Youth Olympics, dancers between the ages of 16-18 competed head-to-head in either men's, women's or mixed-team battles. The breakers were judged on six criteria: personality, technique, variety, creativity, performativity and musicality. For a detailed look at the competition's three phases, you can check out SI's breakdown here.

In Paris, breaking has been given a prestigious downtown venue, joining sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball at Place de la Concorde.

Surfing will be held far from France–more than 15,000 kilometers (9,000 miles) away in the Pacific Ocean–at the beaches of Tahiti, as the IOC already agreed in March.

The 2024 Summer Games will be hosted in Paris from July 26-Aug. 11.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.

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