As a DJ spins music, the athletes twist, whirl and leap — each move a dizzying mix of fancy footwork and contorted limbs. It might seem more like an artform than a sport, but breakdancing — known professionally as breaking — is making its Olympics debut this month in Paris. Breaking has been flourishing on the streets of New York and other U.
S. cities since the 1970s, but Paris marks its first time its athletes, known as B-boys and B-girls, will freestyle their moves on perhaps the world's biggest stage. The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App The two-day breaking competition this Friday and Saturday features competitors from more than a dozen countries, including China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the United States.
The Games will expose breaking to a wider audience, said Victor Montalvo (nicknamed B-boy Victor) of the U.S., who's been called the "Michael Jordan of breaking" and is a favorite in Paris to bring home a medal.
"It's reaching a different audience, a global audience, an audience that thought breaking was dead or was never there, an audience that has the stereotypes or misconceptions of breaking back in the 1980s," Montalvo told CNN En Espanol in a recent interview. As the popular pastime steps into the Olympics spotlight, here's everything you need to know. A competitive form of street performance Breaking in the U.
S. is part of the hip-hop culture that emerged on the streets.