Breaking won’t be part of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles

When breaking made its Olympic debut at the Paris 2024 Games, one competitor’s unique moves became the focus of dozens of viral memes online. 

Australian b-girl Raygun, whose birth name is Rachael Gunn, did a “kangaroo dance” and scored zero points at the Paris 2024 Olympics. But the 36-year-old university professor has defended her routine amid the resulting online criticism and mockery. 

"All of my moves are original," Gunn told reporters. "Creativity is really important to me. I go out there, and I show my artistry. Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn't. I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is about."

After Gunn’s performance, some viral social media posts claimed breaking will not be part of the next Summer Olympics that will take place in Los Angeles in 2028. Some of the posts suggested that Raygun’s performance contributed to the decision to remove breaking from the 2028 Olympics’ program.

THE QUESTION

Is it true that breaking will not be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles?

THE SOURCES

• LA28 Organizing Committee
• WorldDanceSport Federation
• Zack Slusser, vice president of Breaking for Gold USA and USA Dance

THE ANSWER

Breaking will not be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. However, Australian b-girl Raygun’s performance didn’t lead to the sport’s removal from the 2028 Games.

WHAT WE FOUND

Breaking will not be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, organizers confirmed to VERIFY.

However, Australian b-girl Raygun’s performance in Paris didn’t lead to the sport’s removal from the 2028 Games, as people online have suggested.

In October 2023, months before the Paris Games began, the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) announced that the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee did not propose breaking for the 2028 Games’ lineup. WDSF is the governing body for dancesport disciplines worldwide. 

Individual organizing committees – in this case, the LA28 Organizing Committee – can propose sports for their own editions of the Olympic Games and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ultimately chooses whether to approve them.

Los Angeles Olympics organizers told VERIFY that they “ultimately proposed a holistic and balanced package of new sports that prioritizes the ability to showcase quintessential American sports alongside influential global sports.” Organizers added that their decision about breaking “came with a great deal of consideration and utmost respect for the sport, its athletes and fans.”

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While the WDSF said it is “profoundly disappointed with the LA28 decision,” the group is “proud of all that it has accomplished, together with the Breaking community, in an extremely short amount of time.”  

The WDSF added that it is “working hard to ensure” breaking is part of the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. However, some other leaders of the sport think breaking is unlikely to make it into the events for Brisbane.

“It was a miracle that we were even in Paris to begin with,” Zack Slusser, vice president of Breaking for Gold USA and USA Dance, said.

“It would be great to see breaking make it back to the Olympic Games again. But at the same time, it’s really going to go back to community work and leveraging this opportunity internally,” he added.

Breaking is not the first sport to be included at one Olympics and then excluded from the next, as the WDSF noted in its announcement. For example, karate made its Olympic debut during the Tokyo 2020 Games but did not return for the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

New and returning sports at the 2028 L.A. Olympics

Though breaking won’t return to the 2028 Olympic Games, there will be five sports that were not featured at the Paris Olympics:

• Cricket
• Flag football
• Baseball and softball
• Lacrosse
• Squash

Flag football and squash will make their Olympic debut in 2028. Cricket returns to Olympic status for the first time since 1900, lacrosse hasn't been played at the Olympics since 1908, and baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympics after 2008 but made a one-off appearance at the Tokyo Games. 

Modern pentathlon was on the chopping block, but retained its place by replacing the horse jumping event with obstacle course racing.

Boxing has been assured of being on the program in Los Angeles, but the sport is currently without a governing body recognized by the IOC.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.