Taiwanese break dancer Sun Chen (孫振) on Sunday secured his place as Taiwan’s first B-boy to compete in Olympic breakdancing after taking part in the second leg of the discipline’s qualifier series in Budapest, Hungary.
With breakdancing making its debut as an event at the quadrennial summer Olympics, a two-part Olympic Qualifier Series was held in Shanghai, China, and Budapest to finalize the competitors in four “urban sports” disciplines announced by the International Olympic Committee
The other three events were BMX freestyle, skateboarding and sport climbing, all of which debuted at the Olympics after 2000.
Photo courtesy of Red Bull
After a two-year selection process and competitive events, 40 B-boys (male break dancers) and 40 B-girls (female break dancers) were chosen to compete against each other from May 16 to May 19 in Shanghai, followed by the most recent dance-off from Thursday last week to Sunday in Budapest, to vie for a chance to compete in the inaugural breakdancing event at the Olympics.
Breakers placing in the top seven from the combined rankings in Shanghai and Budapest qualified to compete in Paris next month.
Taiwan’s Sun, better known as “B-boy Quake,” placed 10th overall.
He first placed seventh when competing with a leg injury last month in Shanghai, taking painkillers to help dance through the pain.
However, after reaching the quarter-finals, Sun was outdanced by China’s Qi Xiangyu (亓祥宇).
In Budapest, after dancing his way into the round-of-16, Sun on Sunday competed against other B-boys from the US, the Netherlands and Ukraine, but was unable to make it into the quarter-finals and placed 15th.
With a combined score of 60 out of 100, Sun took 10th place, securing his qualification for Paris.
The National Olympic Committees placed a limit of two dancers from each country in the qualifiers, which ensured Sun’s inclusion after Japan and the US exceeded their quota.
Sun released a statement through his agency saying he is honored to represent Taiwan next month, adding that he would do his best to do justice to his dream of competing at the Olympics.
Born on Sept. 21, 1999 — the day Taiwan was hit by a major earthquake measuring magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale which caused widespread destruction and killed 2,456 people while injuring 10,718 — the character of Sun’s first name means “vibrate” in Mandarin. His English nickname is Quake.
Sun’s coach Su Chih-peng (蘇志鵬) said Quake was under a lot of pressure before Budapest as he had just recovered from his leg injury.
Su added that after Sun’s qualification, he hoped the nation would begin to value breakdancing as a sport and do more to cultivate it.
“There are many countries in the world, and yet Taiwan was able to make it to the Olympics,” he said.
“The achievement was not easy, but it also allows the world to see Taiwan’s breaking and the sport could be further cultivated, so one day maybe more people can represent Taiwan,” he added.
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