Breakdancing as official sport for Paris 2024 Games
"We are further reducing the cost and complexity of hosting the Games. This sentence by Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), pronounced on December 7, 2020, certifies that the Olympic movement needs a change of paradigm. Mega-buildings, huge investments in ghost towns after the Olympic Games, the bleeding of sponsors, trips by supervisors to candidate cities... excess as a way of life is over.
The sports festival is being modernised. The IOC Executive Board has met at its Swiss headquarters to approve the programme for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and to continue its work in Los Angeles 2028. For posterity, breakdancing, surfing, climbing and skateboarding will remain the sports that Paris has presented for its event as permitted by the 2014 rules. Also that Karate will leave the Olympics after being admitted to Tokyo 2020. The dance of sports is more about social interests than sports. Karate was favoured by Japanese culture to arrive in Tokyo, but France has decided to link itself to "youth culture with urban and inclusive sports". The more than 100 million karate licences worldwide are relegated by the 30,000 licences that skateboarding has. Baseball, sport, culture and almost religion in America and part of Asia, succumbs to the arrival of a dance, breakdance.
Becoming an Olympian is a huge boost for many sports. Golf and rugby-7 were admitted permanently to Rio 2016 by an overwhelming majority of IOC members. Some federations have been struggling for years to enter the select group of those chosen. No one is crying out for sports like wrestling, 3x3 basketball or even football to have an Olympic space. They don't understand that in order to promote their sport they have to discredit others. Very laudable. But the squash, motorcycling, billiards or chess federations are still waiting for their turn. Futsal is also fighting to be Olympic, but it has a hard time without its own federation and without FIFA and UEFA doing their part.
Paris 2024 will be more than just the Olympic Games. Guy Drut is a former French minister and member of the IOC who, after the pandemic, dared to say that "the Paris 2024 project had become obsolete". Jacques Chirac's former minister called for a "budget re-evaluation" and for consideration of a new model for holding the Olympics in the future. Within the IOC someone called for a stop to the wastefulness. Something has been achieved because since Lausanne they have reduced the number of athletes from 11,092 in Tokyo to 10,500 in Paris and from 339 events in the Japanese city to 329 four years later.
In addition to reducing costs, Paris is booming these will be the first Games to have gender parity. 50% of the athletes will be men and 50% will be women. This is good news. But the quota is not imposed. It is the result of a path where women have had more presence in sport and the requirement to have a federation of these sports in 40 countries on three continents has been met. A natural process that in Rio de Janeiro already had 45% women, in Tokyo will have 48% and in Paris will reach 50%. The number of mixed races will rise from 18 in Tokyo to 22 in Paris thanks to sailing, athletics, boxing and cycling.
The Paris 2024 logo has also been controversial. The logo of the candidacy represented the 24th and gave a wink to the Eiffel Tower. The definitive logo for the Olympic Games follows gender patterns to give prominence to women, the Marianne. A round logo like a medal, with the Olympic flame forming the face and lips of a woman. The same one that will be used for the Paralympics. The memes with their resemblance to a hairdressing salon or the criticism for wanting to exalt women excessively have been cruel.
The cultural battle has reached the Olympic family. A wealthy lineage full of entertainment from the night of modern times. A traditional breed that seeks to change its era.