My argument about breaking as a sport vs. breaking as an art- Sports make me hurt and cry. Art just makes me cry. If I try and windmill, or even top rock in my living room right now, I'm going to be VERY thankful Seminole Cty trauma (complete with helicopter!) is within walking distance. Not that I can walk there if I try breaking.....
I also look at it like this. There's a move (who's name is eluding me... I'm not awake right now) that mens pommel horse has taken directly FROM breaking and made a staple in pommel. Its the one where they stand on their hands and swipe their legs around in circles without touching the ground. If it was BMX (or BMW as it keeps getting called) It'd be a whiplash. There's also the insane amount of strength required to do handstands, headspins, or any number of the other moves. That's atheticisim no matter who you are or where you're from .
I know we keep coming back to Raygun and how much of an "embarassment" she was. That's where the hitch in my giddyup is. Was it a subjectively bad routine? Probably. Like any "sport" where different strategies are employed and subjective judging is a thing- if you go wildly off radar, you're likely to fail. When you've got 50 years of history (Hip hop is 50 now, yall) established, and there's a set of moves and a whole standard, and you've got a doctorate level nerd coming out of left field hitting the sprinkler at the olympics, that's gonna lift some wigs. HOWEVER- that's kind of the point. What everyone (and i'm not talking about here, i'm talking the internet at large. E36 M3's all over the place) seems to NOT understand is originality. They understand the 15 breaking moves they've seen on TV, the showy TikTok power moves, and that's it. Nothing about progression, athleticism, originality, and E36 M3, even getting up on a global stage and sending it. They talk about her outfit. J-Attack, the mens entry from AUS- was dressed identically. same goofy track suit. So.... that's out.
Athleticism? I dare anyone here to get down on the floor, right now, and hit a shrimp. bend at the waist, while lying on your side, and touch your toes while your knees are straight. then flip over and do it on the other side. Go. I sure as E36 M3 can't do that. There are elements of other moves in her routine I know roughly 95% of us couldn't hit without significant injury before, during, or after.
Whether or not it should be included going forward is another matter that we could argue til this thread is locked and Margie pulls my address from the files, drives to my house, and buries me under my OWN patio (it's only about 45 min away, as it turns out. Pretty wild) Should we keep rhythmic gymnastics? Why is Squash coming back? Why are given sports included? Ice skating continues to be one of the most popular sports, period, and that's just dancing on knives. I wanna see Nadya and Boris hit a handspin on ice.
In any event, I will continue to defend Breaking as an event, Raygun as an athlete, and the culture around it in general. Society today is too quick to dismiss something because they're not interested in it, and CERTAINLY because they're suddenly experts in it. People needa chill.