Olympic breakdancers Sunny Choi, Logan Edra knocked out for USA

PARIS — Team USA missed out on the podium in breaking after both of its B-Girls, Sunny and Logistx, failed to advance past the round-robin stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

B-Girl Logistx ultimately fell victim to a brutal draw, having to go against two of the clear contenders for medals: B-Girl Nicka of Lithuania and B-Girl Syssy of France. Logistx, whose real name is Logan Edra, lost her battle to Nicka, 2-0, and needed to sweep Syssy in her third round — which was always going to be tough, given Syssy’s talent and the support of a hometown crowd. They ended up splitting the two rounds, leaving Logistx just short of the top eight.

“It was definitely one of those, ‘Damn, they might be the hardest battles of the whole bracket,’” Logistx said.

She still envisioned herself moving along in the competition and purposefully saved her best moves for Nicka and Syssy – and then dig deeper into her bag for Ami of Japan should the two cross paths in the knockout round.

Logistx thought she smoked Nicka in the first round of their battle and said she’ll have to watch it back to see if she agrees with the judges.

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“When I saw the votes I was like, ‘The (expletive)?’” she said.

B-Girl Sunny, meanwhile, brought some artistry and character to the stage but simply didn’t match the power moves of some of her competitors. She was eliminated from quarterfinal contention even before her third battle, which she won, defeating Portugal’s Vanessa, 2-0.

“I had a lot of fun,” said Sunny, who said she didn’t come across as ‘salty’ because she genuinely enjoyed herself.

Why is breaking in the Olympics?

When is breakdancing competition in the Olympics?

The B-Girls are competed Friday, Aug. 9, the B-Boys go Saturday, Aug. 10. The breaking competitions at the 2024 Paris Games will all be televised live on E!, with the women’s competition slated to begin around 10 a.m. ET on Friday and conclude with the finals, which start at 2 p.m. ET. The men’s competition will take place at the same times Saturday.

Where did breakdancing originate? Who invented it?

In the Bronx in the 1980s, DJ Kool Herc elongated the breaks in the beat – hence the term breaking – long enough for people to drop to the floor and start dancing. The breaks he invented became known as the ‘go off,’ a phrase that has found life generations after its origination. Read Chris Bumbaca’s feature on the origins of breaking and how it spread globally.

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