The 2024 Paris Olympics are almost here, and with it, plenty of sports and competition featuring the world's best athletes. From archery to fencing, football to wrestling, athletes from around the world will descend onto Paris and will compete across 44 different sports.
At this year's Olympics, four new sports are being added to the list of competitions happening across France. These new sports are Breaking, Sport Climbing, Skateboarding, and Surfing. It will be the first times athletes compete for the gold in these categories. If you don't know much about these sports just yet, don't worry. We have you covered with a breakdown of each sport and how it will work at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Read on to learn more about the new sports being added as well as a list of all competitions happening at the Olympics this year.
Breaking Makes Its Debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics as a New Sport
Breaking, also known as Breakdancing, is making its Olympic debut at the Paris games. After debuting at the 2018 Olympic Youth Games, Breaking is ready to take center stage. This is the first time the sport is being added to the Olympic games and it will be interesting to see athletes dancing their way to the gold.
Breaking found its start in New York, particularly the Bronx, in the 1970s. Since then, it has seen an explosion in popularity, with Red Bull hosting a Breaking World Championship in 2023.
16 men and women will compete in this year's Olympics. B-boys, and B-girls as they are called, will compete in cyphers which are one minute rounds given to each competitor to show off their skills. Nine judges will then grade each B-boy and B-girl on creativity, personality, technique, musicality, variety, and performativity. Creativity and personality will be weighted higher than the rest of the categories.
Breaking kicks off on August 9th for women's, followed by August 10th for men's. With a lot of athleticism and agility needed for Breaking, it will surely be a sport that catches people's attention as it kicks off at this year's Olympics.
Sport Climbing
Originally debuting at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Sport Climbing is back with a change. 68 men and women will compete in bouldering, speed climbing, and lead combined events. Bouldering involves climbers being given a set of walls they have to climb by a certain time. Climbers can attempt to complete the course as many times as they would like as long as it is within their given time frame. Climbers will lose points however, if they fail to reach certain checkpoints along the course by a certain time.
Speed climbing is simple. Climbers compete against the clock to scale a 50 foot wall as fast as possible. Whoever has the fastest time, wins.
The lead combined event involves having climbers trying to climb as high as possible in six minutes. Athletes only have one try so if they fall off, they will not be able to try again. The higher a climber goes, the more points they will receive. Bouldering and lead are combined for scoring purposes, with climbers being able to get a maximum amount of 200 points for sport climbing.
Sport climbing will take place between August 7th and August 10th.
Skateboarding
Although skateboarding has been around for years and gained popularity thanks to Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, and many more in the 90s, skateboarding is debuting for just the second time at the Olympics. This year's Olympics will have athletes between the ages of 11 and 50 years old, making for a diverse set of athletes competing for the gold. The sport will be broken down into four events split between two categories: men's and women's street and park.
During the preliminaries, skateboarders will use various equipment around them to do tricks mid-air. Judges will award points on coordination and skill level for each trick pulled off.
During street, skaters have two 45-second runs to use equipment like stairs, railings, and similar items one would see walking around in local streets.
Park skating gives skaters three 45-second runs to use bowls and ramps that you typically see in a skatepark.
During these attempts, skaters will have to impress judges on their creativity, speed, height, and skills. Judges will score five tricks from each skateboarder, and will award points for the best three runs each skater has. Whichever skater has the most points at the end of all runs will be the winner. Skateboarding begins July 26th and ends August 11th.
Surfing at The "Paris" 2024 Games - Well, Kind Of
Although surfing debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it is coming back to the Paris Olympics with a twist. Surfing will take place in Teahupo'o, French Polynesia between July 27th and August 5th. Teahupo'o, a French colony has what many surfers consider to be the best waves to surf on in the world. With dangerous waves that require immense skill to navigate, surfing athletes will have their work cut out for them as they compete for the gold. Surfers compete in "heats", or duration of waves. A single wave can last upwards of thirty minutes given the right conditions.
Five judges will score the competition based on the following criteria:
Speed, Flow, and Power: Speed is how fast a surfer ends up going, and how quickly they adjust to incoming waves. Flow is how their moves connect. Power is how much force the surfer is putting into their moves.
Combination of major maneuvers: How well the surfer connects their big moves together.
Variety of maneuvers: How many moves the surfer can hit during a heat.
Commitment and degree of difficulty: The types of moves done and how difficult they are. The higher the difficulty, the more points given.
Innovative and progressive maneuvers: Judges will be looking for creativity, awarding points for moves that are new or push the boundary of surfing.
With the addition of these new sports, the Paris 2024 Olympics will see new and exciting athletes come together to prove their skills to the world and compete for the gold. While classic sports like football, basketball, and wrestling, it is exciting to see new sports being added. With Saudia Arabia set to host the first E-Sports Olympics next year, it seems the Olympics are committed to keeping up to date with the ever evolving world of sports and including new challenges for athletes to display their skill. The rest of the sports taking place at the 2024 Paris Olympics can be found below.
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