Paris 2024: breaking makes both Olympic debut and final bow

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00:00Hello, everyone, I'm Francois Pigalle, big day of team sports at the Olympics, women's

00:04basketball semifinals, both football finals.

00:07The day started in the Seine, where, after the women, it was the men's turn for the

00:11swimming marathon.

00:12And after 10 grueling kilometers, it ended with a sprint, Hungary's Krzysztof Rzeszowski

00:17edging Oliver Klement of Germany, another Hungarian, David Bethlehem, pipping Italy's

00:22Domenico Acciarenza by a fingertip for bronze.

00:26France took bronze, speaking of which, in the table tennis team event, edging Japan

00:31three matches to two.

00:34Selena Sykes joins us, though, from the skate park at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées.

00:39Selena, first day of the newest Olympic sport.

00:46That's right, Francois breaking, making its debut at this Olympics.

00:50And unfortunately, it's the last Olympics.

00:52It hasn't been retained for L.A. in 2028.

00:55So lots of people here to enjoy it whilst they can.

00:59It may first have had a lot of success at the youth games, and that's why it was

01:04debuted here at the Olympics in this urban park, which, of course, has many

01:10urban sports that have been added recently to the Olympics in a bid to attract more

01:15young viewers to the games.

01:17The breaking, its origins coming, of course, from the Bronx in New York, from the

01:201970s in the U.S.

01:23There will be 32 breakers competing here today and tomorrow.

01:26That's 16 women, or B-girls, and 16 men, known as B-boys.

01:31The competition here at the Olympics, when it works quite simply, dancers will be

01:35competing in one-on-one battles and they'll be competing during two 60-second

01:41throwdowns. A throwdown is when a breaker starts breaking, quite simply, starts

01:48busting their moves, shall we say.

01:50The DJs start spinning the music and a host on the microphone, and nine judges

01:54choose who they think had the better moves.

01:57It's the DJ that selects the music and the breakers are given points regarding

02:03freestyle or how they managed to improvise according to the music.

02:07And they show their moves in turn with a variety of moves and execution and

02:11originality. There's all the sorts of things that breakers will be getting points

02:15for. There'll be 16 competitors for the men and the women.

02:19They'll be divided into groups.

02:20There'll be kind of a round-robin situation until we'll obviously be left with

02:24two finalists that will face each other off in that last final battle for the

02:29gold medal.

02:31Obviously, there's been no Olympics before and to kind of know who the real

02:34favorites are or not, though we can take the World Championships from last year.

02:38As an indicator, back in 2023, it was Victor, B-boy Victor from the United

02:43States, that won for the B-boys.

02:45And it was a B-girl, Nikita from Lithuania, who won for the women.

02:49And when you're covering the games, Selena, it's all about location.

02:52It doesn't get any better than where you are right now.

02:57That's right. I will really say this is kind of the heart of where it's happening.

03:00Loads of tourists and visitors who don't even have tickets are coming here to walk

03:05around. This really is one of the most picturesque parts of Paris, right in the

03:09center. You've obviously got the massive urban park you can see just behind me,

03:13Place de la Concorde, with so much going on over there.

03:17Lots of people just coming to walk around and to take a look around.

03:20Then you've got the Grand Palais, literally about a 10, 15

03:26meter walk this way in front of me.

03:29There's the Champs Elysees just right ahead of me as well.

03:32It's a really picturesque part of Paris where lots of people are coming just to soak

03:36up the atmosphere and things going on around.

03:38It's just one of the most spectacular things, isn't it, about this Olympic Games.

03:41A lot of people thought it was quite a crazy idea to have so much going on in the city

03:45center to convert historical monuments into venues for the Olympic Games.

03:50But listen, François, everyone's loving it.

03:52The Parisians are loving it. The tourists, the visitors are loving it.

03:54And I think it's probably going to go down as the most picturesque games ever.

03:59And your iconic moments of this Olympiad, Celina?

04:05Well, I've given it a quick thought on the metro over here to Place de la Concorde

04:09because obviously running over so much and I've got to say, number one for me has got

04:13to be Léon Marchand, that historic double on the same night in the pool,

04:17getting two gold medals in the same evening, obviously four overall.

04:20But that was absolutely mad what he managed to do, getting the gold,

04:24two golds on the same night in the 200 meter butterfly and breaststroke.

04:30That was definitely the big one for me.

04:32Obviously, a homeboy winning on home turf at his at his home games.

04:37A really, really powerful moment for me.

04:38And I think the second one has to be Simone Biles' comeback for me.

04:42It was a remarkable achievement for her, obviously, to come back.

04:45Lots of people didn't think she would compete in the Olympics again

04:47after having suffered from the twisties at Tokyo.

04:51And she came back and she's ending her Olympics career.

04:53She's not confirmed it yet,

04:54but we can assume that she's ending her Olympics career on her own terms.

04:58One of the greatest gymnasts of all time, obviously a bit of a fumble

05:02in her beam event and her floor exercise.

05:05And obviously that big iconic moment as well was her and her compatriots

05:10almost kneeling down,

05:11bowing down to Rebecca Andrade as she, the Brazilian,

05:15won the gold in front of Simone Biles for that floor exercise.

05:18Biles having been the big favorites in that one.

05:20That was a big iconic moment.

05:22And obviously Simone Biles just coming back and doing what she does best

05:25and getting some more gold medals to her tally.

05:28Seven gold medals in total for the young gymnast.

05:30One of many acts of sportsmanship that we've witnessed over this fortnight.

05:34Many thanks, Salida Sykes, for joining us live

05:38from where it's all happening at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées.

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