How to ruin an Olympic sport event forever- 101

You wouldn't believe how excited I got when the corner of my eye caught breakdancing on the TV.
"Olympics now has breakdancing as an event?" I said both in shock and surprise.
Back in the day, a lot of us kids used to come together at the polished tiles in front of the Sharjah Holiday Inn hotel. Sometimes after school was over we used to head to the park and get busy on the rubber mulch and tiles. Often we would walk together in the evenings to find a better spot to get active.

What am I talking about?

Playgrounds, football fields, and empty parking lots were becoming extinct in the Emirates. There were little to no options for outdoor popular sports like football to be played anywhere. We, the kids, were slowly transitioning from football to breakdancing.

While gathering pictures for this post I realized the most diverse group of friends I ever made came through breakdancing, not football or academics.

I was part of many crews and finally ended up in a crew of 9 bboys called Funk Factor Crew. I, of course, went by bboy blind.

Breakdancing was a new form of expression for us then. We made incredibly powerful friendships, connected on a deeper level, developed unique styles which were usually based roughly on our cultures, went to battles, explored the country, and had fun.

Breakdancing gave us a life where a fast growing country was taking away opportunity for kids to live kiddy life. It gave us exercise and excitement. And trust me, breakdancing is more physically demanding then a lot of "sports" out there. We almost always had someone in the circle with a broken limb...hard way of learning the importance of weight training and stretching.

In comes the Australian bgirl incident. The whole world has seemingly found a way to ridicule the sport and the event. Matter of fact, I do not think karate was the right sport to substitute. But, now, there's a bigger and badder reason to ridicule the breakdancing sport.

There's a claim that she is the best Australia has to provide. I STRONGLY DISAGREE.

This routine is what we call in breakdancing as "fundamentals".

FUNDAMENTALS

Fundamentals is the absolute basic of breakdancing. It is about mind and body connection, rhythm, musical understanding, flow, and ground work. Fundamentals is the most beautiful thing in breakdancing if done right, and the hardest. It is harder than all the flips and acrobatics within breakdancing. That's because it takes insane levels of calmness, control, and being dance-y. That's why most breakdancers focus on flashy tricks, flaps, and acrobatics, coz then they can't be judged based on Fundamentals.

The Fundamentals done by the Australian was dogshit. She had the right idea - show off one of the hardest skills in the breakdancing world and grab points. But her Fundamentals were worse than a drunk tree branch. I am ashamed for her.

Bboy Austin introduced me to breakdancing and we were always part of the same crews. His "airchair" was the signature move, but he had won his first ever cypher tournament just on Fundamentals. He went on to qualify for the Emirates RedBull breakdancing event that year. He didn't go very far because his Fundamentals weren't at national stage level, and the airchair is one move that 50% of all bboys can do.

My signature was the "99". Spinning on hand. I performed with the crew in many events but never competed. My ground work was the best in the crew but I didn't have enough in my arsenal to compete.

Bboy Dragon was one who went on to win a few major accolades and also became part of the red bull breakdancing judging panel for a few years in the Emirates.

Bboy Milli went on to continue with his family business but still goes to plenty of breakdancing events in his free time. Here he is doing a reverse airchair into pike at some cypher tournament. He did pretty well but I don't think he ever competed either.

Bboy Awir was the highest level breakdancers we knew personally. His signature was flexibility and now performs as a contortionist is some of the world's most popular circuses. He has been in major song videos and has a red bull medal.

I know what I'm talking about. Breakdancing was a huge part of my life for almost half a decade. And that's why I can't laugh at this Olympic incident, I can only feel the pain.

Breakdancing is very intensely competitive, needs years of training, insanely physically demanding, and has a right to be in the Olympics. There are millions, like the bboy inside me, who are overjoyed seeing their favourite sport in the most honourable sporting event. The sheer amount of discipline, dedication, studying, practicing, work, science, broken bones that all goes behind breakdancing gives it enough reason to be showcased on the highest levels.

But the Australian bgirl incident was really embarrassing. For one, I cannot ever believe that she is the best Australian bgirl. Her ground work was of an amateur, her attempt at showing Fundamentals came off as a mockery. She wasnt even dancing, let alone anything close to breakdancing.

This has to be a joke. It is embarrassing for all breakdancers and Australia itself, and what an insult to the millions that love this sport.

I'm hurt.

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