Aug 9, 2024 - World

Japan’s Ami Yuasa wins inaugural gold in Olympic breaking

Ina Fried

B-Girl Ami of Team Japan cries at Olympic Games Paris — Japan's B-Girl Ami during the Breaking B-Girls Quarterfinal 1 battle at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 9, 2024. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

Japan's Ami Yuasa, who competed simply as Ami, wowed the judges to win gold in the first-ever Olympic breaking (aka breakdancing) competition in Paris on Friday.

Why it matters: The sport, along with recently added events like speed climbing, skateboarding and BMX, is part of an effort to make the Olympics younger and more urban.

Nicka, of Lithuania, took silver, with China's Liu Qingyi, who competed as 671, taking bronze and defeating the Netherlands' India Sardjoe in the women's competition, known as B-Girls.
In the semifinals, Yuasa defeated Lithuania's Dominika Banevič, who competed as Nicka.
Neither of the American woman — Sunny Choi and Logan Edra, who competed as Logistx — made the quarterfinals.

Between the lines: The competition took place Friday at La Concorde in the same venue that earlier in the games hosted men's and women's 3x3 basketball and is just steps from where the skateboarding competition takes place.

How it works: Breaking is judged and scored on five criteria: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality and originality.

Each head-to-head match features three rounds and athletes don't know what music the DJs will play and aren't allowed to repeat previous sets of moves; only one breaker moves on to the next round.

What's next: The B-Boys, as the men's competition is dubbed, takes place on Saturday.

Go deeper: Olympic breaking (not breakdancing), explained

Add Axios on Google

Japan’s Ami Yuasa wins inaugural gold in Olympic breaking

What to read next