Crew USA’s Victor Montalvo Wins Bronze Medal in Breaking at Paris Olympics

Crew USA triumphed throughout breaking’s first 12 months as an Olympic sport, as Amercian b-body Victor took dwelling the bronze medal.

On Saturday, Aug. 10, Victor (whose full title is Victor Montalvo) gained the battle for bronze 3-0 in opposition to Japan’s Shigekix at La Concorde in Paris, in line with a press launch from Crew USA.

The 30-year-old’s win comes simply after he misplaced to France’s Dany Dann within the semifinal spherical, whereas Canada’s Phil Wizard beat out Shigekix. Montalvo initially completed on the prime of group A, in line with Crew USA, and took out Amir of Kazakhstan 3-0 within the quarterfinal knockout spherical.

Phil Wizard, whose actual title is Philip Kim, finally took dwelling the gold medal for Canada, and France’s Dany Dann gained silver.

The Paris Olympics’ breaking competitions on Friday and Saturday noticed 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls — the colloquial time period for a breaker, or breakdancer — battle in opposition to one another one-on-one as a panel of judges scored the matches based mostly on six completely different standards: creativity, persona, approach, selection, performativity and musicality.

“Athletes will use a mixture of energy strikes — together with windmills, the 6-step, and freezes — as they adapt their type and improvise to the beat of the DJ’s tracks in a bid to safe the judges’ votes and take dwelling the primary Olympic breaking medals,” the Olympics’ official web site defined.

The game — which was beforehand part of the Olympics’ Youth Olympic Video games on the occasion’s 2018 Summer season Video games, marking the primary time any type of dancesport had been an Olympic occasion — has its roots within the Seventies avenue tradition of New York Metropolis.

Sunny (actual title Sunny Choi), 35, who was one in every of two Crew USA b-girls this 12 months, beforehand spoke about how essential it was for the U.S. to indicate its dominance within the sport. “I do not understand how usually individuals are like, ‘You do not have a selection. Like, you have to convey it dwelling for New York,’ ” she advised CBS Information.

“[We] try to pay respect to the place we’re coming from, the place this dance comes from, and need to put a few of that shine again onto the group as we go onto this on the large stage,” Choi added in a information convention on Aug. 6, per the outlet.

Montalvo, who’s initially from Florida, beforehand opened up about why he’s obsessed with breaking in an interview for Crew USA, explaining that he first picked up the game from his cousin when he was simply 9 years previous.

“It was one thing simply so superb,” he stated. “I simply cherished the music and the way in which it made me really feel. I am an excellent shy child, so for me it was good since you need not speak to anybody. You simply want the dance ground and your self. So it was like a extremely superior artwork type slash sport for me.”

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Crew USA’s b-girls didn’t take dwelling any medals in Paris. Throughout the round-robin portion of the competitors, 21-year-old Logistx (actual title Logan Edra) scored three wins and 35-year-old Sunny (actual title Sunny Choi) clinched two wins, however neither made the quarterfinals. Japan’s Ami gained the ladies’s gold medal, and Lithuania’s Nicka gained the silver within the remaining.

“I really feel like I nonetheless shined and I really feel like I nonetheless represented the dance and had some moments,” Logistx stated after her battles, in line with CBS Information. “It was such a giant alternative, it is such a giant platform, and I am actually blissful that we’re right here.”

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