In an appeal to younger fans, breaking (breakdancing), surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing are coming to the Olympics.
Breaking will debut at the Paris Summer Olympic Games in 2024. The other sports will start at the 2021 Tokyo games, as they were added back in 2016 but not guaranteed a spot in future Olympics until now. All four sports were provisionally approved for the 2024 games back in 2019, but are now officially coming.
“With this programme, we are making the Olympic Games Paris 2024 fit for the post-corona world, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) president Thomas Bach said in a press release. “We are further reducing the cost and complexity of hosting the Games. While we will achieve gender equality already at the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, we will see for the first time in Olympic history the participation of the exact same number of female athletes as male athletes. There is also a strong focus on youth.”
Paris will mark the first time there will be an exactly 50-50 split between female and male competitors at the internationally renowned sports competition.
The Paris 2024 Twitter account tweeted out official notices about all four sports being added:
Now it’s official
Breaking will be in #Paris2024 Olympic Games for the first time in history !B-Boy, B-Girls, get ready to show the world how spectacular and great you are
#RoadToParis2024 pic.twitter.com/pghWNeZFX2
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) December 7, 2020
Breaking started in the U.S. in the 1970s and has evolved into a competitive fusion of athleticism and movement set to music. A decision on whether to add breaking to the 2024 Summer Olympics wasn’t supposed to happen until after the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, which was rescheduled due to the pandemic. The IOC announced the decision to definitely add it and the other three sports to the Paris Games on Dec. 7.
The Paris games are scheduled to take place on July 26-Aug. 11, 2024. While most events will be in or near France’s capital city, surfing will take place in Tahiti, part of French Polynesia. After all, wave conditions on the Seine aren’t exactly ideal. The Tokyo Olympics, postponed from this year due to the coronavirus, is planned for July 23-Aug. 8, 2021.
Skateboarding, like breaking, is seen as a more urban sport. Sport climbing involves following a climbing route of permanent wall or rock anchors.
Other newer summer Olympic sports include 3-on-3 basketball, karate and BMX freestyle. Baseball is returning to the Tokyo Olympics after not appearing in the games since 2008.
Which sport are you most excited about seeing at the Olympic summer games?
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories.
