The breakdance will be part of the Olympic program of Paris-2024, which will also include climbing, skateboarding and surfing, that will debut in the next Tokyo Games, announced this Monday the president of the International Olympic Committee (COI), Thomas Bach.
The IOC executive commission set the final program for Paris-2024, which includes these four “additional” disciplines to the 28 traditional sports, with three novelties with respect to the Japanese games: the total number of athletes will decrease by 600 (remaining at 10,500 ), podiums will go from 339 to 329 and, for the first time in the history of Olympism, there will be exact parity between male and female athletes.
Preferred to karate, which will be present in Tokyo, or billiards, the inclusion of breakdancing is perceived as a sign of the IOC to modernize the largest sporting event in the world and, above all, attract a younger audience.
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With climbing, surfing and skateboarding, it is about popularizing “inclusive and attractive disciplines that can be practiced outside of traditional sports venues,” explained Bach.
In order to make room for the new disciplines and to reduce the number of participants, the IOC will eliminate some of the tests so far existing in the 28 permanent sports in the Summer Games.
The number of mixed events will go from 18 in Tokyo to 22 in Paris, thanks mainly to sailing, athletics, boxing and cycling, sports that for the first time will reach parity.
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Another of the novelties of Paris-2024 announced by the IOC this Monday, and whose objective is that gender parity, is the elimination of the 50 km march test and its replacement by “a mixed test” of athletics yet to be defined explained IOC sports director Kit McConnell.
Yes, the tests of the 20 km march are maintained, both male and female.
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