Breaking in the Olympics!

So what does the Air Rifle have to do with Breaking? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

JUNE 28th, 2019

AUTHOR: Geoff Reyes

In all honesty, I just literally googled Olympic Gold Medal and just picked a name of a random sport that I’ve never ever watched before.  Congratulations to Virginia Thrasher, the 2016 Women’s 10m Air Rifle Gold Medalist, from the USA! Virginia may be the nicest women in the world, I’ve never met her, don’t know her, and I’ve never heard of her before the name just popped up in Wiki.  But this major assumption that I’m about to make may help in explaining why the Olympics will not have any negative impact on Breaking, the culture it continues to preserve, and the community on the verge of thriving.

I will assume that Virginia picked up the sport somehow, figured out she was talented in it, was supported by family and friends, trained her ass off, and qualified to represent her country in Air Rifle.  I will also assume that there is an Air Rifle community that now looks up to Virginia and perhaps support her involvement in Air Rifling (sp?). This short generic description of her history tells nothing of the sport, but nonetheless, Air Rifle IS indeed an Olympic Sport that is governed by the ISSF (International Sports Shooting Federation) that has held World Championships since 1970 and first earned its way into the Olympics in 1984.  Google is such a great tool to sound smart.

So what does the Air Rifle have to do with Breaking?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. But it is governed by a respected enough federation, with enough support and funding, to be included as a discipline in the Olympic games.  Air Rifle is assumed to have enough participating countries, rules, and a history of competitiveness. It showed that it can host its own World Championships for 14 years before even starting with the Olympics and still continues to carry out competitions around the world.  It is safe to say that a relatively little known sport, such as Air Rifle, has not been killed off due to its involvement with the Olympics.  

Much like the shallow, unresearched origins of Air Rifle outlined above, Breaking can simply follow the same path and succeed with an avenue like the Olympics.  Some media outlets can ask the question and even mock the inclusion of the new ‘Discipline’, because, you know, Who Even Does That Nowadays?...

Well...I don’t own a fucking Rifle and never shot one in my life...but I do know who Viriginia Thrasher is now and I just wiki’d a quick history on the ISSF and know that since 1984, Air Rifle competitions still exist around the world.  And big shouts to the reigning Men’s Freestyle Wrestling Gold medalist at 65Kg, Soslan Romanov from Russia. Oh, and Emesa Szasz from Hungary that won the Women’s Fencing Gold. I’m sure that your countries are continuously mocking the existence of your sport after bringing home the hardware in Rio.  

Those that think that the Breaking Culture can be negatively impacted by a global stage like the Olympics might be misguided and out of touch with what actually is driving the culture.  What kind of Olympic quota of disciplines forces you to watch Breaking to have an opinion of whether it is a right choice to be included or not? I don’t get it. Is there some sort of mandatory ticket purchase or something by writers that directly impacts their life because of the inclusion of “Breakdancing” in the Olympics?   Is the effort of watching Olympic Breaking taking away from your 5km cross country ski route only to stop every so often to shoot a rifle at a target a million miles away?  ...Pardon me while I go throw a 16 lb cannonball the furthest I possibly can...

It’s those that do not rely on others, and outside sources that make the breaking culture survive.  It’s a culture that built from the ground up (no pun intended), and will continue to grow on its own.  The Olympics can act as another vehicle to help educate and inform people of what Breaking actually is, and it's up to the world to decide whether they want to enjoy it as entertainment, participate in it, or ignore it altogether.  

I think breaking is on the verge of something great.  It’s so close, and maybe leading up to the 2024 Olympics can encourage more great minds to take a risk and actually bet on breaking like how the WDSF has.  Maybe more Steve Graham type guys can step in and offer insight on how to effectively build a thriving ecosystem for Breaking. I’m still not sure if we are still throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, but at least we are trying.  And if it takes a vehicle like the Olympics to get people’s attention and take Breaking seriously, then I’m all for it.  

Maybe in 2036, a new sport will come around that will gain a ton of skepticism, and they will look to the history of Bboys and Bgirls that helped shape Olympic Breaking into the well respected Sporting Culture that it will be.  

Here’s to taking a bet on breaking.  I’m sure Virginia would probably go in on it as well.