Breakdancing is now an official Olympic sport.
The International Olympic Committee broke the news on Monday, Dec. 7 as part of a larger announcement about the 2024 Paris Games, where breakdancing will make its debut as a medal event.
There's still plenty to look forward to at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, though! In fact, the IOC executive board confirmed that three additional sports—skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing—would be added to the slates for both Paris 2024 and next year's Tokyo Games, which were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the committee, this "new flexibility" is "part of the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020," which "will help to make the Olympic Games Paris 2024 fit for a post-corona world."
Regarding the specific addition of breakdancing—which will be referred to as "breaking" at the Games—ESPN attributed it to the IOC's continued pursuit of urban events to lure "a younger audience."
Paris organizers suggested the sport almost two years ago, having seen positive results when breakdancing was staged at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
Now, per CNN, breakdancing will be the first DanceSport event to ever appear at an Olympic Games. As part of the competition, 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls—the term used for competitive breakers, or breakdancers—will compete in one vs one battles.
Shawn Tay, president of the World DanceSport Federation, said on Monday that the news made for "a historic occasion, not only for b-boys and b-girls but for all dancers around the world."
Make sure to mark your calendars for the 2021 Summer Games, set to open on July 23, 2021 and air on NBC networks.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family)