How An Olympic Breakdance Battle Is Judged

With the Paris 2024 Olympic breaking events set to take place August 9-10, many new viewers may be wondering how this dance style will be judged as an Olympic sport. First, a brief history of competitive breaking: Breaking has been around since the 1970’s, and large-scale judged competitions started to gain traction in the 1990’s. Events that paved the way for competitive breaking around the world include Battle of the Year, Miami Pro-Am and Freestyle Session. More international competitions like Outbreak, The Notorious IBE and Red Bull BC One found success in the following years. In 2016, breaking’s athleticism and competitive spirit won over the International Olympic Committee, leading them to approve breaking as a discipline for the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games and to subsequently greenlight it for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, b-boys (men) and b-girls (women) face off in one-on-one faceoffs called battles, where they take turns showing off their moves and hopefully sway the judges to vote for them. The judges then score the competitors directly against each other using a comparative judging system. Breaking at the Paris Olympics will most likely use a panel of nine judges using Level...