Breakdancing at the Olympics
Did anyone else watch the debut of Breakdancing @ the Summer Olympics 2024?!
As a self professed Olympics fanatic, I was a little dubious about breaking as an Olympic sport but also super excited. I knew I was going to love it, but it was way more exciting than I thought it was going to be.
As a member of Gen X I grew up loving the films “Breakin” and even “Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo” Ha! I also had a boyfriend in college who would invite friends over to my apartment to practice breakdancing in my larger than average kitchen. And then of course, living in NYC for 15 years made me an even larger breaking fan. When treated to a spontaneous subway breaking performance I just knew it was going to be an excellent day.
As dance medicine PTs, we know dancers are athletes as well as artists. Breakdancing seems to be a very straightforward inclusion. Certainly if rhythmic gymnastics is a sport, then breaking which has the extra aspect of creative spontaneity added to dance should be included. And honestly, rhythmic gymnastics just seems to be a glorification of hyper mobility syndrome. Am I wrong?
And now for a short critique:
The male commentators were much better, more descriptive. The competitive men were also more creative with adapting and listening to music. Maybe women were at a disadvantage by going first in the competition? The Ukrainian women were my favorite. What light in their eyes, and going thru an (un)civil war?! Interestingly, the women also seemed to be much more accomplished in life outside of breakdancing whereas for the men, breaking seemed to be their full time job. Case in point: one of the Japanese competitors is so famous in his home country he was anointed the flag bearer. Whereas one of the Australian women competitors recently finished her PhD on “Deterritorializing gender in Sydney's breakdancing scene: a B-girl's experience of B-boying.” The high impact and intensity of most of the moves also got me thinking about what kinds of pelvic floor issues the dancers and might have. In fact a PT cannot watch the Olympics without thinking of what types of injuries might be sustained. Just saying.
All in all, analyzing any human movement is great fun. Does not matter the sport. And that’s why the Olympics are so much fun for physical therapists and movement professionals.
Now I will now be having Olympics withdrawal because I have literally been watching most of all day, every day for the past 2 weeks. Thanks Peacock/NBC!
As the commentators noted, breaking is all about peace, love, and unity.
It was a joyful event!