From breaking to sports climbing: What to know about new Olympic sports

The 2024 Paris Games included a wide array of traditional Olympic sports, but events that debuted recently garnered extra attention.

Skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing and breaking were four non-traditional sports that captivated audiences at the Paris Games.

Breaking, also known as break dancing, made its Olympic debut. Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing all first appeared at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Here’s everything you need to know about each sport (excluding surfing).

Breaking

When did breaking take place at the 2024 Olympics?

The girls competition began and concluded on August 9, while the boys competition began and concluded on August 10.

Where did breaking take place?

Breaking was headquartered at La Concorde, a temporary transformation of the iconic public square Place de la Concorde. Skateboarding, cycling BMX freestyle and 3×3 basketball were also held at La Concorde.

What are the rules of breaking?

Breaking includes two events — one for 16 B-Boys and the other for 16 B-Girls. Each group competes in solo battles. Athletes are judged by their dance moves, which are improvised to the beat of the DJ’s tracks.

How is breaking judged?

Judges use five criteria to pick a winner — vocabulary, technique, execution, originality and musicality. Vocabulary refers to the series of moves a contestant attempts, while technique and execution are more about how those moves are completed.

Technique refers to the athleticism, body control and how the athlete uses the stage. Execution is about the smoothness and sharpness of moves — pauses, crashes, slips and falls are all penalized.

Contestants are rewarded for the originality of their moves and reactions to the dance battle. Musicality follows a similar style of scoring, looking at how well athletes understand the music’s rhythm and their ability to freestyle to it.

Who won gold medals in breaking at the 2024 Olympics?

Men: Phil Wizard (Canada)

Women: Ami Yuasa (Japan)

Skateboarding

When did skateboarding take place at the 2024 Olympics?

The men’s street prelims and finals were held on July 27, while the women’s street prelims and finals took place on July 28. The women’s park prelims and finals were held on August 6, while the men’s park prelims and finals took place on August 7.

There are 22 athletes in each competition, marking 88 in total.

Where did skateboarding take place at the 2024 Olympics?

La Concorde hosted the event.

The street competitions took place on a “street-like” course that included stairs, handrails and benches, meant to resemble the environments where skateboarding originated. The park competitions were on a course that combined bowls and bends.

What are the rules of Olympic skateboarding?

Speed, difficulty and range of moves are all basis of judgment in the street and park competitions. However, each one has its own specific format.

The street competition includes two phases, with eight advancing from the preliminary to the final round. Skaters have two 45-second runs, with the best of two counted for the next round. They also have an individual portion, with five attempts to land a trick.

In the trick phase, the two best tricks are counted toward the final score, while only the highest score of the run phase counts.

In the park competition, skaters have two 45-second runs with the ability to perform as many tricks as possible.

They will be judged on five criteria, according to the World Skate rulebook: Repetition, flow and consistency, use of the course, quality of execution and difficulty and variety of tricks performed.

During the run and trick portion, scores are awarded from 0-100 with the highest one being part of the skater’s overall score. However, each of the best two tricks are given a score of 0-100, making a final score of between 0-300.

This is a change from the Tokyo Olympics where scores were awarded from 0-10 and only accounted for the highest score between run and trick, not both.

Who won gold medals in skateboarding at the 2024 Olympics?

Men: Keegan Palmer (Australia)

Women: Arisa Trew (Australia)

Sport climbing

When did sport climbing take place at the 2024 Olympics?

The men’s and women’s competitions began on August 5 and concluded on August 10.

Where did sport climbing take place at the 2024 Olympics?

Le Bourget sport climbing venue, which was built specifically for the Paris Games, hosted sport climbing.

What are the rules of Olympic sport climbing?

There are three sport climbing formats: bouldering, speed and lead.

In bouldering, athletes have limited time to climb 4.5m high walls without ropes in the fewest attempts possible. Speed is a one-on-one elimination round race against the clock. In the lead event, athletes are tasked with climbing as high as possible on a wall over 15m high in 6 minutes.

In Tokyo 2020, final scores of each athlete reflected the combined scores of the three competitions. However, in Paris 2024, two competitions crowned their own winner — with one as a combination of the boulder and lead events, and the other with just the speed event.

Who won gold medals in sport climbing at the at the 2024 Olympics?

Men’s combined: Toby Roberts (Great Britain)

Women’s combined: Janja Garnbret (Slovenia)