How do they do it? Breaking offers the Olympics a new beat.

Breakers Victor Montalvo and Sunny Choi will soon compete for Team USA at the Summer Olympics in Paris. The No. 1 B-boy and B-girl have been part of the buzz surrounding breaking – word to the wise, do not call it breakdancing – as a sport in the Games for the first time. Breaking was introduced in the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2018, and the sport’s popularity helped push the International Olympic Committee to officially include it for 2024. Among the reasons the IOC chose it: to increase youth engagement.

“My mind will be blown when I see it on TV,” says Michael Holman, founder and director of the New York City Breakers, a breaking collective that started in 1982. Mr. Holman wrote a proclamation for breaking to be an Olympic sport in 1984. He was also one of the first to write down official rules for breaking competitions.

Mr. Holman says that he first saw the potential for breaking to be a sport because of the athleticism of the crews. They had amazing footwork, he says, but they also had slick power moves – like flares, spins, and windmills. 

“There will be a part of me that feels like I had something to do with this, at least spiritually. I will feel incredible pride,” Mr. Holman says of the upcoming competition.

What are the origins of breaking? 

Breaking started in New York City in the 1970s. Breaking crews battled one another in front of DJ stands surrounded by crowds. The breakers won or lost a battle based on how loudly the crowd applauded. 

Breaking looks much different today from in the 1980s, when it was popularized by movies like “Beat Street” or “Breakin’” and “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.” Original breakers emulated soul singer James Brown. Latino youths added a heightened sense of gymnastic movements to the art form, and over time the influence of kung fu movies with swipes and arm movements became a part of it, Mr. Holman says.

“The music should inspire the moves. The music should be just as important to the moves as the way you wrote the routine and the combinations,” Mr. Holman emphasizes.

Much like gymnastics, breaking incorporates physical movement, strength, and skill coordination. It is also a global phenomenon, with European and Asian countries leading the way in hosting tournaments year-round. 

How will Olympic breaking be judged?

A nine-member panel will judge each category, B-boys and B-girls, with 16 competitors in each one. 

Athletes perform for one minute, but points won’t be deducted if a routine goes a little longer. Each battle is a three-round, rapid-fire competition: When one breaker ends their routine, the next starts up. 

What makes breaking different from other Olympic sports is that breakers will not be able to choose their own music, and will have to dance to a medley curated by a DJ. Breakers are judged on technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. Each category accounts for 20% of the score.

“Music is the most important thing to us,” Mr. Montalvo said while meeting with the media in April. “We have the breaking playlist, but we don’t know what the song is. Sometimes you don’t like the song, but you gotta go out there and fake it till you make it and act like it’s the best,” he added.

Much of modern breaking consists of complex power moves: windmills, which feature dancers spinning upside down while their legs kick out in a circle; freezes, in which performers stop with their hands on the floor and with their legs arched back or crossed while staying still; and headspins. The routine is rounded out with footwork and dancing.

Mr. Montalvo and U.S. team members will have in mind what routines they bounce and spin to the best, but most importantly, they will be improvisational while they entertain the judges.

“With breaking you gotta be creative, you gotta have style, you gotta have individuality, you gotta have your own fingerprint,” he says.

How were the breakers on the U.S. Olympic team chosen?

Dancers are selected a variety of ways. Mr. Montalvo won a gold medal at the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championship in Belgium to qualify. Ms. Choi captured gold at the Pan American Games in 2023 to earn her spot on the women’s team.

Mr. Montalvo started breaking in his hometown near Orlando, Florida, when he was 6 years old. His father and uncle, who learned the art in Mexico in the 1980s, taught him.

Ms. Choi learned breaking while in college at the University of Pennsylvania. She has traveled the world and seen the talent of breakers from as young as 5 years old to those in their 30s, like her, or older.

“I’m trying to match them in soul, who I am, in showing my character about me, myself, and being able to represent my community,” she says of hip-hop and breaking while at the media event. 

Now that breaking will be on a larger stage, Ms. Choi says, it is important that it not get diluted, and that people properly know about and respect the culture. She plans to pay homage to the originators, OGs as they are called, and talk about the culture.

Breaking helps her dig deep into herself and focus when she has moments of depression. “The better I understand myself, the better I can do out there and the better that I can show up,” she says.

She is used to not being able to pick her own music in competitions. If she could choose, though, she leans toward artists ranging from current Grammy-nominated rapper Pusha T to old-school rap group N.W.A. “It depends on my mood,” she says, smiling.

Mr. Montalvo sees their role as an important one. “A lot of people talk about breaking losing the essence throughout the years. So I feel like it’s up to the newer generation to dig into those roots and then bring that essence back into the dance.”

Read more of our coverage: Women’s sports are having a moment. The Olympics are showing why.