After Paris 2024: What’s next for the Olympic Games?

[GBModerator]

Some things will be a bit different when the Summer Games return to the United States for the first time since Atlanta 1996, others will remain the same. Breaking will be out.

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[Brekkie Boy]

Absolutely not - was a joke this was included in the Olympic Games and hopefully that's the last time we see it.   Unlike other "young" "urban" sports there was absolutely nothing of sporting merit to be seen here.

 

P.S.  Also LA - nobody missed Softball or Baseball these games - they're a waste of hundreds of athletes spaces at the games.   And Flag Football - seriously?

[Nacre]

Baseball makes a lot of revenue for the organizing committee in a city that already has large stadiums for it. ($50/ticket * 40,000 tickets/match * 16 matches = $32 million) It also lets the host spread some competition across their country and gives more people a chance to see a small part of the Olympics in person. These are the same reasons that football is in the Olympics despite the fact that nobody really cares about Olympic football. Similarly, if India were to host the Olympics then cricket should absolutely take part.

The key difference is that football, baseball and cricket are legitimate competitive sports in their own right, whereas breakdancing is not. If they want to keep it in the Olympics, it should stay as an artistic feature rather than as a sport.

[Bear]

5 hours ago, Brekkie Boy said:

P.S.  Also LA - nobody missed Softball or Baseball these games - they're a waste of hundreds of athletes spaces at the games.

says who

[antiperspirant]

12 hours ago, Brekkie Boy said:

Absolutely not - was a joke this was included in the Olympic Games and hopefully that's the last time we see it.   Unlike other "young" "urban" sports there was absolutely nothing of sporting merit to be seen here.

 

P.S.  Also LA - nobody missed Softball or Baseball these games - they're a waste of hundreds of athletes spaces at the games.   And Flag Football - seriously?

I liked breaking! It inspired me to register for hip hop and breaking classes at a local dance studio (it's really hard). If that's not the Olympic spirit then I don't know what is. The Olympics to me has always been about about humans inspiring other humans, whether it is to try out something you'd not have wanted to try out or feeling connected with others. Breaking falls in line with that.

Also it is young. Yeah sure it may seem like an outdated idea of young from the 90s, but as someone you graduated university this year, I can assure you that breaking is still pretty popular. There are dozens of hip hop dance teams on my campus who compete regionally and statewide (this is a school in CA so even more of a surprise it didn't make the cut for LA28). And according to my friends in it, each locality has a pretty comprehensive community with their own style to it. Admittedly, maybe it isn't quite an "urban" exclusive sport anymore as it draws in suburban kids too.

[Sir Rols]

I’m ambivalent on breaking.

I gotta admit, I enjoyed watching it. But enjoyed in the terms of half watching in amusement and half as someone who used to watch So You Think You Can Dance and the Step Up movies. If I had to choose between it and, say, synchronised swimming, I’d choose Breaking.

I also do see a lot of kids practicing it. I often stop outside my local library to watch the kids do their sets in the open areas.

But I can’t get past the idea that unlike something like skateboarding, which I do consider a real sport, breaking is more a youth art form activity. Plus it’s another subjective, judged activity.

Edited August 12, 2024 by Sir Rols

[baron-pierreIV]

If they're making Breaking as a "permanent sport," then Ballroom Dancing should also be let in.  They have an international federation that's been knocking on the IOC doors for years -- they make great TV ratings.  And if there is Ice Dancing in the WOGs, why shouldn't there be Ballroom Dance in the Summer edition?  

[StefanMUC]

2 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

If they're making Breaking as a "permanent sport," then Ballroom Dancing should also be let in.  They have an international federation that's been knocking on the IOC doors for years -- they make great TV ratings.  And if there is Ice Dancing in the WOGs, why shouldn't there be Ballroom Dance in the Summer edition?  

Actually, Breaking is governed by the very World Dance Sport Federation that is also governing ballroom dancing. I guess letting them in this time was a way to keep them quiet again for a while. I'm sure they'd rather prefer their more "traditional" disciplines to be on the Olympic stage still, but it doesn't really match with the IOC's attempts to make the Olympics attractive for younger audiences.
 

[StefanMUC]

11 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

I’m ambivalent on breaking.

I gotta admit, I enjoyed watching it. But enjoyed in the terms of half watching in amusement and half as someone who used to watch So You Think You Can Dance and the Step Up movies. If I had to choose between it and, say, synchronised swimming, I’d choose Breaking.

I also do see a lot of kids practicing it. I often stop outside my local library to watch the kids do their sets in the open areas.

But I can’t get past the idea that unlike something like skateboarding, which I do consider a real sport, breaking is more a youth art form activity. Plus it’s another subjective, judged activity.

Skateboarding is also a judged activity though? From what I saw from the breaking, most of those b-boys and b-girls seemed very athletic as well, except for one certain participant who is now world-famous.

[antiperspirant]

36 minutes ago, StefanMUC said:

Skateboarding is also a judged activity though? From what I saw from the breaking, most of those b-boys and b-girls seemed very athletic as well, except for one certain participant who is now world-famous.

I saw a reel of a gymnast trying to do breaking moves and it made me realize that breaking is basically floor gymnastics with a smaller surface area. Makes sense because they're both basically variants of calisthenics. Just because you can do an activity out on a street where random kids are trying it out, instead of a gym, doesn't make it not a sport that doesn't have athletic merit to it. Just because it's accessible doesn't mean it's easy. To say so would imply that what's considered a sport is basically only if rich people play it and you need to have money in order to be athletic. Maybe that's exactly why there is a push to include events like breaking to shift this implicit understanding of sport away from a classist undertone.

[mr.bernham]

1 hour ago, StefanMUC said:

Actually, Breaking is governed by the very World Dance Sport Federation that is also governing ballroom dancing. I guess letting them in this time was a way to keep them quiet again for a while. I'm sure they'd rather prefer their more "traditional" disciplines to be on the Olympic stage still, but it doesn't really match with the IOC's attempts to make the Olympics attractive for younger audiences.
 

I think we need to discuss how WDSF only started governing Breaking because they kept begging the IOC for ballroom and the IOC said "no" but was open to Breaking. WDSF changed tact, got Breaking approved, and then had to figure out how to govern an event they'd never taken seriously before. That's how we ended up with that joke Australian women who basically made a mockery of Breaking and Australia.