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Breaking Olympic debut highlights: Snoop Dogg, B-Girl Ami and more


  • Alyssa Roenigk, Senior Writer, ESPNAugust 9, 2024, 5:58 p.m. ET

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      Alyssa Roenigk is a senior writer for ESPN whose assignments have taken her to six continents and led her to commit countless acts of recklessness. (Follow @alyroe on Twitter.)

PARIS — As the afternoon rain cleared and the sun set behind the Olympic breaking stadium at La Concorde, Japanese B-Girl Ami on Friday became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in breaking. She'll likely also be the last.

Breakdancing, a dance style that originated on the streets of New York City's Bronx during the 1970s, made its Olympic debut in Paris. However, it will not be featured at the Los Angeles Games in four years. Therefore, Paris 2024 will be the only opportunity for breaking to be part of the Summer Olympics.

This made Friday's B-Girls competition one of the most anticipated of the week and turned La Concorde into an absolute party.

Below are some highlights from the inaugural event:

Snoop Dogg grabbed the Brigadier to open the competition, then sat at the side of the stage and cheered on the dancers during the free-for-all battles.

Before the semi-final, the venue announcer asked the DJ to turn up the music, then explained the breaking's links to hip-hop music and asked the crowd, which included IOC President Thomas Bach, to raise their hands. He then led them in a chorus of Naughty By Nature's “Hip Hop Hooray.” When he asked them to shout, their response shook the stands.

The second semi-final between B-Girl 671 from China and 17-year-old B-Girl Nicka from Lithuania, real name Dominika Banevic, was the most electrifying and passionate of the night. But it was the flamboyant, acrobatic and almost comical style of 2023 world champion B-Girl Nicka that took her to the final. There, she battled B-Girl Ami from Japan, who had earlier eliminated France’s medal hope B-Girl Syssy from the competition.

In the final, both women combined powerful acrobatics and technical moves with creativity and musicality. With French B-Girl Syssy out of the battles, there was no clear crowd favorite. Instead, the audience applauded the best moves of the night. After the battle, the women cheered each other on, met center stage, and hugged.

Then came the countdown to the winner's announcement in a mix of French and English. “Dix… nine… eight…” B-Girl Ami Yuasa won gold. B-Girl Nicka took silver.

Earlier, B-Girl India from the Netherlands won the bronze medal battle and earned the first Olympic medal ever awarded in Olympic breaking history.

Team USA B-Girls Grace “Sunny” Choi and Logistx failed to make it past the round-robin stage in their breaking debut. B-Girl Logistx, real name Logan Edra, faced a tough draw that included B-Girl Nicka and French B-Girl Syssy, and finished outside the top eight.



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