Meet 2 of the U.S. Athletes Competing in the Newest Olympic Sport — Breaking (Exclusive)

The 2024 Olympics in Paris will mark the debut of a new sport, breaking. Ahead of their debut for Team USA, get to know breakers Jeffrey Louis and Victor Montalvo.

Louis, 29, tells PEOPLE he started breaking when he was 10 years old. “My brother learned in school and then he came back home and taught me, and as he learned, I learned,” says the athlete, who is often referred to by his nickname “Jeffro.”

Montalvo, 30, started breaking at the age of six. “I remember my dad and his twin, they used to break back in Mexico,” he shares. “They would always put on B Street, and I remember me and my cousin and my brother would just imitate the dancers.”

And to this day, Montalvo’s father “still dances,” he says. “He still whips out a back-spin. He’ll come to the backyard or he’ll come while I’m training with my friends with his beer, and he’s like, yo, hold my beer.”

Both Louis and Montalvo say they “never” thought breaking would become an Olympic sport. “For me, that thought was out of my head,” says Montalvo. “We honestly didn’t know it was going to be in the Olympics until 2020. So for us, it was out of our head, out of reach.”

Louis also says breaking becoming an Olympic event “was never a thought” for him. Instead, “I did it just for the love of it,” says Louis. “But when it became possible, I started training like an athlete.”

With the world about to be introduced to breaking, Montalvo and Louis are excited to share the sport.

“A lot of people have a misconception of breaking and the stereotype, spinning on your butt, the head spin, dancing on the cardboard floor and rolling around the floor, but it’s more than that,” says Montalvo.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer , from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“You’re basically bringing your creativity, your imagination into this art form, and you’re creating art and you’re bringing your own personality,” he adds. “We’re basically like a brush on the dance floor, creating shapes and concepts. So it’s all about creativity, originality, having a strong foundation and paying homage to the people that came before us.”

For Louis, he wants new breaking fans to know that the sport is “really complex” and artistic.

“The biggest misconception is that it’s just flashy moves, but it’s not just backflips and head spins. There’s intricate movements, style and originality. These spins and aerial moves have all been done, so the question becomes ‘What are you adding to it?’ It can be taxing, but when I get stressed out, I go back to why I started doing this: a pure love of the dance.”

Moreover, breaking in the Olympics adds another layer of difficulty because the athletes will enter the event unaware of the music they’ll be competing to, Montalvo explains.

“We don’t know what the DJ’s going to play. They do have a list of breaking music, but we just don’t know what tracks they’re going to play, and it’s been tough for a little while because we can’t play original music at certain events,” he says, citing copyright issues.

“So we don’t get to listen to the original tracks, which fuels us to dance better. And sometimes you’re listening to sampled music and it doesn’t have the same feeling that the original music has. So it’s really tough for us. We have to adapt. It’s a lot of improvising. Adapting in the moment.”

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.com. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.