Rooted in the founding of hip-hop more than 50 years ago, breaking will make Olympic history as it debuts this weekend, and all eyes will be on Team USA leader Victor Montalvo to bring home the gold.
“There are only a few breaking athletes who can compete for a long time. And it’s because you always have to reinvent yourself,” Montalvo told The Times in June.
Montalvo’s interest and talent for the sport started when he was 6. His father and uncle, Victor and Hector Bermudez, respectively, first discovered the style in the late 1980s while living in the Mexican city of Puebla. Known as the Bermudez Twins, they helped popularize the style throughout the area.
The family’s early entry into breakdancing inspired Victor, who would go on to pursue it as well. He is the current world champion.
“What I enjoy the most is losing yourself in the music. You are basically an artist onstage. You’re drawing things onstage,” Montalvo said in the June interview with The Times. “You’re basically putting together a puzzle to make a big painting, that’s what breaking is all about.”
The 30-year-old Olympian has worked on refining his style with signature head spins and body contortions while standing out among other B-boys.
“I do this for the love of it,” Montalvo said. “I don’t do it for the competition. I don’t do it for the money. I want to leave my own mark.”
Competition aside, breaking’s inclusion in the Olympics recognizes the efforts and talents of the B-boys and B-girls throughout the dance’s history.
In addition to the Florida-born Montalvo, Team USA also includes Sunny Choi, known as B-Girl Sunny, who is from Queens, N.Y., and was introduced to the sport as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. At 21, Logan “Logistx” Edra is the youngest member and has been dancing since age 7. Lastly, Jeffrey Louis, a.k.a. B-Boy Jeffro, is recognized for his creation of Fitbreak, a fitness program that brings together breaking and exercises, as well as his accolades in the dancing style.
The four will face athletes from more than a dozen countries, including Japan, France and China. During competition, participants are expected to showcase their style and abilities while a DJ spins unexpected beats. They will be scored on execution, musicality, originality, technique and vocabulary.
“Each generation has its footprint so it can expand, but at the core it will never change. Hip-hop is an Afro diasporic voice that calls for respect and at this point after 2020, nothing can erase the rooted aspect of hip-hop in Blackness,” Puerto Rican B-Girl pioneer Ana “Rokafella” Garcia told De Los last year. “The Olympics will be another iteration of this dance form and stand alongside the other cultural branches on this tree.”
The tournament starts with the B-girls qualifier at 7 a.m. Pacific on Friday and the final at 11 a.m. Pacific. Similarly, the B-boys will compete at the same times, only on Saturday.