Breakdance Olympic Live: Competition Rules, Scores, Results

PARIS — The breakdancing competition continues at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with b-boys taking center stage.

The competition begins with a round robin tournament, with four groups of four breakers, each playing two rounds with the other three in their group. From there, the top two B-Boys in each group—based on who won the most rounds—advance to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals are three rounds in traditional bracket style.

USA TODAY Sports brings you all the latest updates, scores and highlights from throughout the competition. Follow us.

Interruption Movements: What You Need to Know

There’s more to it than you might think.

The most obvious moves are known as power moves—big flips, spins, and other acrobatic moves. Then there’s the “top rock,” which is the dancing and posing you’ll see when breakers are upright. But there are also a ton of little things in between—footwork, floorwork, freezes, and the “get down,” which is how a breaker transitions from top rocking to floor.

A large part of the breaks is about the nuances and transitions between elements. The best ones will be fluid in dynamics, that is, in the way they move from standing to the floor and back. They will be able to perform different components in opposite directions or with slight deviations to make them new.

Where did breakdancing come from?

In the Bronx in the 1980s, DJ Kool Herc extended the breaks in the beat—hence the term breaking—enough so that people could drop to the floor and start dancing. The breaks he invented became known as “go offs,” a phrase that has survived generations after its inception. Read Chris Bumbaki’s article on the origins of breaking and its global spread.

Why is breakdancing an Olympic sport?

Breaking is part of a new wave of sports that the International Olympic Committee has introduced as part of a broader effort to appeal to younger fans and add an urban touch to the Summer Games. It follows the addition of sports such as skateboarding and surfing, which debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

When will breakdance competitions be held at the Olympics?

The B-Girls competed on Friday, with Ami from Japan taking gold. The B-Boys will compete on Saturday, August 10. All of the breakdancing competitions will be broadcast live on E!, with the men’s competition set to begin around 10 a.m. ET on Saturday and culminating in the finals starting at 2 p.m. ET.

When did breaking first appear in the Olympic Games?

It became an Olympic sport for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Breaking the rules, format, scoring at the Olympics

It’s a bit confusing—and completely new to the world of breaks. Instead of a simple one-on-one bracket, the preliminary round will be a round robin: four groups of four breakers, each of whom will play two rounds against the other three in their group. From there, the top two B-Girls in each group—based on who won the most rounds—will advance to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals will consist of three rounds in traditional bracket style.

Competitors will be judged in five categories: technique, execution, musicality, originality and vocabulary. Scoring is fairly subjective, with each judge simply voting for the B-boy or B-girl they feel performed best in each category. There is no numerical scoring system like in figure skating or gymnastics.

Vocabulary is one of the criteria to look out for as the competition progresses. Judges want breakers to showcase a variety of moves and styles throughout the rounds. If they do the same thing in the final battle as they did in the first, they will theoretically be penalized for it.

Breaking at the Olympics results, results

Here are the results of the round robin battle. There were two rounds per battle, with a total of 18 votes up for grabs, nine per round.

Japanese Shigekix vs American Victor
Chinese Lithe-Ing vs Japanese Hiro10
Canadian Phil Wizard vs Frenchman Dany Dann
Australian J Attack vs Ukrainian Kuzya
Jeffro from USA vs Lagaet from France
Korean Hongten vs Dutchman Lee
Amir from Kazakhstan vs Menno from the Netherlands
Quake from Chinese Taipei vs Billy from Morocco
Japanese Shigekix vs Japanese Hiro10
Victor from the USA versus Lithe-Ing from China
Canadian Phil Wizard vs. Ukrainian Kuzya
Frenchman Dany Dann vs Australian J Attack
Jeffro from the USA vs Lee from the Netherlands
Frenchman Lagaet vs Korean Hongten
Amir from Kazakhstan vs Billy from Morocco
Menno from the Netherlands vs Quake from Chinese Taipei
Chinese Lithe-Ing vs Japanese Shigekix
Japanese Hiro10 vs American Victor
Australia’s J Attack vs Canada’s Phil Wizard
Ukrainian Kuzya vs French Dany Dann
Korean Hongten vs American Jeffro
Dutchman Lee vs Frenchman Lagaet
Quake from Chinese Taipei vs Amir from Kazakhstan
Moroccan Billy vs Dutchman Menno