Saying the words “Break dancing” and “she creates her own moves [as why she failed]”, to me, proves there’s zero need for that to be an Olympic sport.
I’ve always kind of detested ‘judged’ sports, not the sports themselves but the idea of judging creative expression on a scale. Like, “We, the panel, have decreed that your moves were not funky fresh. Pop and lock your way to the locker room please.”
While a simple solution for a popularity contest, it has great drawbacks when looking for techique comparison. Someone’s family may be bigger or louder than others, some people may have more fans in the audience, who can afford to attend will skew the vote, being an international event would mean that it’s likely the home team has the advantage as people from the host country have a greater opportunity to attend, some event crowds may be determined by time of day or by public transportation, and the audience may not see the whole (5 hour breakdancing) event and certainly won’t see the performers as well/as close as the judges would. Additionally the audience has so many new viewers during the Olympics that don’t know how hard certain moves/sequence of moves are while some easy flashy moves will wow a crowd every single time. None of those things show particularly compelling qualification to determine how technically good the performer/performance is.
That isn’t really how the judging worked though. First they had a huge panel of judges - 9 of them. And they judge them on 5 criteria: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. It is qualitative, but it’s a comparative rating system with actual guidelines - so they each simply have to decide who did each thing better:
Maintaining physiological control while focusing on athleticism, form and spatial awareness.
The range of moves that display variation and the quantity of moves, ideally with minimal repetition.
The ability to land and perform moves smoothly, without falls or slips and while maintaining consistency and flow.
The ability to stay on beat, syncing movements to the rhythm of the music.
The capacity for improvisation, creativity and maintaining spontaneity with style and personality.
I don’t think breaking necessarily needs to be in the olympics, but we’re past the point of only allowing sports (looking at you, dressage) and we do have other artistic events (rhythmic gymanstics and synchro swimming). And, the scoring system for breaking was reasonable and able to determine valid winners.
Yeah judges and the MC making live commentary like “Woo girl you got the moves!” And no actual rating system already makes it a popularity contest and its not like there is a wide expansive network of smaller competitions to find the actual best performers.
It’s not a sport even though it could be. It’s an industry wanting representation so it can feel important.
Saying the words “Break dancing” and “she creates her own moves [as why she failed]”, to me, proves there’s zero need for that to be an Olympic sport.
I’ve always kind of detested ‘judged’ sports, not the sports themselves but the idea of judging creative expression on a scale. Like, “We, the panel, have decreed that your moves were not funky fresh. Pop and lock your way to the locker room please.”
I approve of it only as long as they use those words precisely.
They could judge the winner by crowd decibel level instead.
While a simple solution for a popularity contest, it has great drawbacks when looking for techique comparison. Someone’s family may be bigger or louder than others, some people may have more fans in the audience, who can afford to attend will skew the vote, being an international event would mean that it’s likely the home team has the advantage as people from the host country have a greater opportunity to attend, some event crowds may be determined by time of day or by public transportation, and the audience may not see the whole (5 hour breakdancing) event and certainly won’t see the performers as well/as close as the judges would. Additionally the audience has so many new viewers during the Olympics that don’t know how hard certain moves/sequence of moves are while some easy flashy moves will wow a crowd every single time. None of those things show particularly compelling qualification to determine how technically good the performer/performance is.
That isn’t really how the judging worked though. First they had a huge panel of judges - 9 of them. And they judge them on 5 criteria: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. It is qualitative, but it’s a comparative rating system with actual guidelines - so they each simply have to decide who did each thing better:
I don’t think breaking necessarily needs to be in the olympics, but we’re past the point of only allowing sports (looking at you, dressage) and we do have other artistic events (rhythmic gymanstics and synchro swimming). And, the scoring system for breaking was reasonable and able to determine valid winners.
Yeah judges and the MC making live commentary like “Woo girl you got the moves!” And no actual rating system already makes it a popularity contest and its not like there is a wide expansive network of smaller competitions to find the actual best performers.
It’s not a sport even though it could be. It’s an industry wanting representation so it can feel important.