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 LĂ©on 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.