Paris 2024 breakdancing contenders emerge as B-Boys and B-Girls eye Olympic debut
- Becoming an Olympic sport divided a community but race is on to qualify for the Games by accumulating points in sanctioned competitions
- Red Bull BC One World Final features Paris wannabes, watched by some of the original B-Boys and B-Girls from the culture’s early days
Breaking is in Victor Montalvo’s blood. He is a descendant of twin breakers – his father and uncle – who were performing in Mexico long before they taught a young Montalvo to spin on his back.
Born in Florida, the 28-year-old who also goes by B-Boy Victor has mastered the foundations of the dance form. He has power. He has the flavour and swagger expected of a diehard B-Boy. His movement syncs with the breakbeat flowing from the DJ’s turntables.
Scribble, chirp, rip, boom, blip.
He is among dozens of B-Boys and B-Girls – a term for a male or female entrenched in the culture of hip hop – charting a path to the Games in Paris. The International Olympic Committee announced two years ago breaking would become an official Olympic sport – dividing the community between those excited for the larger platform and those concerned about the art form’s purity.
But after the Red Bull BC One World Final, held earlier this month in the birthplace of hip hop and a short distance from the streets where black and Puerto Rican New Yorkers pioneered breaking, the field of Olympic competitors is starting to take shape. The event also attracted some of the original B-Boys and B-Girls, as the community prepares to celebrate 50 years since the culture’s founding in 1973.
