Breaking is not bad – the B-girls face-off and delight the Paris crowds

From The Bronx to La Concorde, via the back-alleys of Kabul and the banlieues that ring Paris like a vinyl record, breakdancing touched down on the global stage on Friday, bringing top-rocks, freezes and down-lows into the Olympic lexicon for the first time.

In the same square where Marie Antoinette was sent to the guillotine two-and-a-quarter centuries ago, the world’s top 32 B-girls executed their moves in a series of face-offs against a backdrop of tracks curated by the competition’s resident DJs, Plash One and Fleg.

On her solitary appearance in the pre-qualifier, and to roars of approval from a capacity crowd at the hugely successful Urban Park, Talash ripped off her jacket to reveal a bib with the words “Free Afghan Women’. “I wanted to show people what is possible,” she said afterwards in the briefest of media interviews.

Snoop Dogg officially opened the competition to the sound of his classic Drop It Like It’s Hot. Almost five hours later, Ami, from Saitama in Japan, beat Nicka of Lithuania to be crowned the sport’s first – and possibly only – Olympic B-girl champion.

A panel of nine judges – almost certainly the first officials in Olympic history to enter their seats via a group performance of the activity on which they were about to adjudicate – scored each breaker based on six criteria: technique, vocabulary (variety of moves), execution, performativity, musicality and originality.

Sixteen-year-old Dutch B-girl India was the first breaker on the Olympic stage, throwing down a series of power moves to unanimously out-score Talash and advance to the competition proper.

“I’m super-happy to be here, and I’m proud to be the first one,” said India, the 2022 world champion. “It means a lot. It is the first time that breaking has been on such a high platform – it’s the biggest showcase in the world.”

Also in the opening phase, the crowd warmed to local favourite Ssey, a 17-year-old who caused a minor beef with her Australian opponent Raygun by beginning her series of acrobatic downrocks before her rival had properly concluded her routine.

Raygun (real name Rachael Gunn) is a 36-year-old academic from Sydney who is more than twice the age of most of her competitors. She was expected to exit at the group stage, but is nevertheless determined to help pave the way towards a long-standing legacy.

“I’m super excited to be a part of bringing breaking to the world,” she said. “It is such a phenomenal atmosphere, and a privilege to get this opportunity.

“All my moves are original. Creativity is really important to me. Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn’t. I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is all about.”