By Brayden Yin
The IOC, or International Olympic Committee, announced that four new sports would be added to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The four sports added were breakdancing, also known as breaking, surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding. All of those sports except for breaking have already been added to the sports included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which have been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus.
The reason that the four sports were added was because the IOC had “a clear priority to introduce sports particularly popular among the younger generation.” Breakdancing originated in the South Bronx of New York City in the 1970s and is known officially in sport terms as “breaking”. It already has some credit due to the appearance of breaking in the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Shawn Tay, president of the World Dance Sport Federation said that it was a historic occasion for all dancers around the world. He also said that “The WDSF could not be prouder to have breaking included at Paris 2024 … It was a true team effort to get to this moment and we will redouble* our efforts in the lead-up to the Olympic Games to make sure the breaking competition at Paris 2024 will be unforgettable.”
Surfing is a sport consisting of riding on waves on a board, sport climbing is a form of rock climbing with permanent handholds, and skateboarding is riding on a board with wheels and doing stunts.
These sports will all be looked forward to and will appear in both the 2021 and 2024 Olympic Games.
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