The newest Olympic sports being played at the 2024 Paris Games

Alongside classic summer Olympic events like gymnastics and beach volleyball, a new sport will take the stage in Paris in 2024. 

Breakdancing, officially called breaking, will be the only new sport to debut during the Paris Olympics. Several sports that were featured for the first time during the Tokyo Games will also return. 

Here’s everything to know about the newest Olympic sports featured in the Paris Games. 

The newest Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Games is breakdancing

The history of breaking, or breakdancing, begins in New York City in the 1970s, according to the official Olympics website. The dance style grew out of hip-hop culture and features “athletic moves including spins, flips and other complex techniques.” 

International competitions for breaking began in the 1990s, and the sport was featured at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the 2024 Olympic Games, the breaking competition will take place on Paris’ Place de la Concorde on Aug. 9 and 10. Female breakers will compete on the first day, and male breakers on the second. 

On each day, 16 competitors will face off in a round-robin phase. Four groups of four breakers will compete in minute-long matches, or “battles,” with the top two of each group advancing to the quarterfinals. Winners will continue to advance through the semifinals and then compete in a best-of-three final round to see who takes home a medal. Each day of competition will last for about five hours led by a master of ceremonies with music randomly played by a DJ. 

Each battle will be scored by a panel of judges, who will make their decisions based on five categories: musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique and execution. 

Other new Summer Olympic sports that debuted at the Tokyo Games

During the 2020 Olympic Games — which were held in the summer of 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic — four new sports debuted. Skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing and karate were all added to the schedule for the Tokyo Games. 

Karate will not return for the 2024 Olympic Games, but skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing will be featured. Skateboarding and sport climbing events will be held in Paris, while the surfing events will be held in Tahiti, French Polynesia. 

Two more sports — softball and baseball — were played during the Tokyo Games. Both had previously been Olympic sports, but had been discontinued in 2008. Softball and baseball will not be played during the 2024 Olympics. 

Do we know which new sports will debut in 2028?

The 2028 Olympic Games will be held in Los Angeles and include two new sports and four returning activities that won’t be included in the Paris Games. 

The two debuting sports are flag football and squash. Like breaking, squash was included in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, but flag football has never been played as an Olympic sport before. 

Lacrosse was first played in the Olympics in 1904 and again in 1908, but hasn’t competitively appeared in the Games since then. The version slated for 2028 will have six players on each side. World Lacrosse referred to the version that will be played in 2028 as an “incredibly fast-paced, compact version of the sport at the intersection of field and box lacrosse.” 

Another returning sport will be cricket, which has only been played once during the Olympics. It appeared at the 1900 Olympics, which were held in Paris. Baseball and softball, last seen during the Tokyo Games in 2021, will also be played in Los Angeles.