Breakdancing is jumping into the Olympics. This summer in Paris we're going to see dancers popping, locking, doing head spins and gyros, all in an effort to win the sport's first gold medals.
But how exactly does a new sport get added to the Olympics? Alyssa Roenigk, a senior writer at ESPN who's in Paris covering her 10th Olympics, explains the process.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Alyssa Roenigk: So there's three different things, right? There's sports, there's disciplines and then there's events. So for a new sport to get in, like breakdancing or breaking, that has always been the most complicated.
For a new discipline to get in — say, BMX under cycling, under the [Union Cycliste Internationale] — a little less complicated. The UCI, or the international governing body of cycling, can decide to remove a discipline in favor of another discipline.
And then you also have events. So, say, for skateboarding, you have park and street. Those are events. So you could maybe start pulling one in and substituting.
It used to be that a new sport to get in was a very complicated process. ... The [International Olympic Committee] started to realize that they needed to add some new sports — certainly some youthful sports, some, you know, X-Games style sports — to attract a new audience. The audiences seem to be slipping every 2 to 4 years. So what they did starting in 2020 was offer to each host country, each organizing committee, the opportunity to put forward one or more sports. ... And then those sports are then voted on for inclusion.
So in 2020, we saw sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding, karate, and then the return of baseball and softball. And then at the next Olympics here in Paris, the Paris organizing committee was then able to "yes" or "no" to each of those and put forth their own. So they accepted sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding, and then they put forth breaking, which is making its Olympic debut now.
Andrew Mambo: So then how much power do host countries have when adding new sports?
Roenigk: The host countries have a lot of power in that.
The first thing that has to happen is, in order for a country to even put forth a new sport, it has to meet a few criteria — and the biggest is that the IOC must recognize the sport's international federation, or IF. ... A certain number of countries must participate. They must have participation by men and women on multiple continents.
Once the IOC recognizes the federation, then they have the opportunity to be included in the Olympics.
Mambo: What has been the impact of adding new sports over the last few years?
Roenigk: I think it's been the potential to help the sport grow around the world, right?
There certainly are always going to be countries that are very, very strong. You know, with skateboarding, you sort of knew it was going to be Brazil, Japan and the U.S. But the potential for the Olympics and Olympic inclusion to grow the sport and funding in countries around the world, I think is also something that they look at. ... I think we'll see in, you know, one or two Olympics — it's not going to be just three countries that are great at skateboarding. Which is very cool and very exciting.
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