Breaking is a real sport. The world’s best do street gymnastics to a hip-hop beat. To reiterate: it is a real sport, at its best extraordinary demanding and thrilling. It is that rare experience that locks the audience in. At world-class breaking, no one, repeat no one, idly scrolls their cellphone. The crowd, young, urban, is part of the scene. And it is a scene. A scene you want to be part of. Especially if you are a teen or 20-something, the Olympic target audience.

Breaking was in for Paris 2024. It’s out for LA28. It’s unclear whether it might come back for Brisbane in 2032 and beyond.

A key challenge in breaking’s Olympic future – in or out – is the World DanceSport Federation, the international federation that oversaw breaking to and through Paris 

Perhaps nothing underscores that challenge than the WDSF World Ranking, readily available online for both men and women, or in the jargon, bboys and bgirls:

-       Raygun, the Australian breaker Rachael Gunn, is women’s No. 1.