The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday announced that Breakdancing, also known as breaking, has been added as an official Olympic sport and will feature as a medal event at the 2024 Paris Games. Skateboarding, surfing and rock climbing have also been ratified for inclusion and will make their debut during the Tokyo Games, which was postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 2020 Tokyo Olympics New Dates: Summer Olympic Games Reportedly to Be Held From July 23, 2021.

‘Breaking will make its Olympic Games debut, building on the success of the sport at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018’ the committee wrote on their official Twitter account while providing the list of the official approved sports programmes for Paris 2024.

According to the Olympics committee, the idea behind the inclusion of the break-dance as a new sport in the Olympics is to expand the youth-focused activities and make the Olympics more engaging and inclusive for the younger generation outside the arenas.

Breakdancing was proposed by Paris organisers almost two years ago after positive trials at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Breaking passed further stages of approval in 2019 from separate decisions by the IOC board and full membership. In Paris, breaking has been given a prestige downtown venue, joining sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball at Place de le Concorde.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 08, 2020 12:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).