Paris, France, August 9, 2024: The Olympic Games has its first breaking champion – B-Girl Ami of Japan.
B-Girl Ami, whose real name is Ami Yuasa, put on a dazzling display at La Concorde 1 on Friday, Augst 9 to defeat Nicka of Lithuania 3-0 in the final. The nine judges awarded Ami all three rounds and a victory margin of 16-11.
671 of China (Liu Qingyi, aged 18) won the first medal to be awarded in the sport at the Olympics – the bronze by beating the B-Girl known as India representing the Netherlands 2-1 (19-8).
Ami, 25, said: “It hasn't quite sunk in yet. I'm supposed to be feeling really happy and possibly crying in joy but it feels like I haven't come back down to earth."
The afternoon round-robin competition involved 16 players playing three matches in the four four-player groups.
The top eight qualified for the quarter-finals in the evening, with each match involving three sets. The scores of the nine judges were not revealed until the match was finished, and the excitement built as the results were released, round by round.
Ami beat Syssy (France) 3-0 (25-2) in the quarter-finals and the Netherlands’ India 2-1 (17-10) in the semi-finals to set up the showdown with world champion Nicka, whose full name is Dominika Banevic.
At this time, breaking is not on the sports programme of Los Angeles in 2028, meaning B-Girl may be the first Olympic champion and last – for a while.