Sunny Choi has received clear instructions from her fellow New Yorkers: Bring a gold medal home, to where her sport started.
“I don’t know how often people are like: ‘You don’t have a choice. Like, you’ve got to bring it home for New York,” said the 35-year-old breaker, who was born in Tennessee but now lives in Queens.
Choi is one of four Team USA b-boys and b-girls, as competitors are known, competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics. At a news conference on Tuesday, all of them expressed their pride at being able to represent the roots of the sport, also known as breakdancing, in its Summer Games debut.
“[We] try and pay respect to where we’re coming from, where this dance comes from, and want to put some of that shine back onto the community as we go onto this on the big stage,” said Choi.
While the sport has its roots in 1960s New York, there have been international competitions since the 90s and the sport appeared in 2018 at the Youth Olympics Games. Now, in 2024, it’s hitting its biggest stage so far.
“We’re going to have all eyes on us, so I just want to make sure that everyone understands what this dance is about and what hip hop is about, because it’s all about peace, unity and having fun,” said fellow Team USA breaker Viktor Montalvo.
A DJ will spin the music — breakers won’t know the selections ahead of time — as the competition unfolds on the Place de la Concorde.
“It’s going to feel like a party,” said breaker Jeffrey Louis, “from the DJ who’s providing the music, the vibe, we have the dancers, we have the crowd.”
As Montalvo puts it: “We already made history, so why not enjoy it?”
What’s the schedule for breaking and when does it start?
The women’s competition starts at 10 a.m. ET Friday, with the final battle taking place at 3:23 p.m. ET. The men’s events take place at the same times Saturday.
Over the five hours of competition, the 16 breakers will start out in groups of four with one-minute battles. Dancers are scored by a panel of judges on their musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique and execution. The top two from each group will go to the quarterfinals and then semifinals, and the best-of-three medal round will determine who takes home the gold.
