Breakdancing moves closer to Paris Olympics inclusion as organisers begin venue search

Paris 2024 president revealed that a search for a venue for breakdancing will begin on Wednesday

Breakdancing looks set to be included in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Lee Hoagland / The National

Breakdancing moved a step closer to becoming an Olympic sport on Tuesday as organisers for the 2024 Paris Games began looking for a street venue in the French capital.

Paris is looking to add four sports to its program, although the other three - sports climbing, surfing and skateboarding - will make their debuts at the Tokyo Games next summer.

While a final decision will not be made until December 2020, International Olympic Committee (IOC) members formally endorsed requests from Paris officials in February to provisionally add breakdancing to the 2024 program.

“It’s important for us in our concept to put sports out of the stadiums and in the heart of the city,” said Tony Estanguet, the Paris 2024 president.

Estanguet revealed that a search for a venue for breakdancing will begin on Wednesday.

The sport made its Games debut at the Buenos Aires Youth Summer Games in October last year. In Paris there will be 16 participants in both the men's and women's events.

Meanwhile, surfing will take the Paris Games out of the capital, with Biarritz on France's south-west coast an option.

“Paris 2024 will choose a venue offering natural waves, as France boasts a number of well-known surfing spots on its Atlantic coast and in its overseas territories,” the organizing committee said in a statement.

The Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and French Polynesia are all also potential locations for the surfing competition, International Surfing Association President Fernando Aguerre said.

“There’s a lot of options. A lot of them seem to be very, very positive,” Aguerre said.

Breakdancing, surfing and the other two proposed sports still need to prove themselves to Olympic observers and could be removed before receiving final approval. However, should any be removed it will be too late for a replacement to be added.