Charley Breaka to Represent Egypt at Breakdancing in Winter Olympics

Did you know that breakdancing is going to be introduced as an Olympic sport in the 2024 Paris Summer Game? Evidently, the French are just that much more street than the rest of the world. Well, they’re not alone. Mahmoud Elshamy, better known as Charley Breaka, is preparing to represent Egypt in breakdancing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, as part of a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

This is just one in a number of mind-bending steps that Egypt must pull off in order to participate in the Olympics ‘Break’ event. Not only do we have to qualify on points, we have to establish a breakdancing federation first. Charley Breaka is currently three moves and a twist ahead of us on that front; he has started the process of setting a federation up, and hopes to have it ready by 2022.

While this would be the first time breakdancing makes it to the Olympics as we know it, ‘Dancesport’ was previously held as an event during the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the mixed-NOCs athletes and Japan taking home the most medals.

In 2014, Charley Breaka and other Egyptian breakdancers like Klash were featured in ’Handstand: Breaking Boundaries’, a documentary produced by Red Bull International and directed by Ahmed Abdullah. It chronicles how breakdancing began to popularize itself in Egypt and the difficulties breakdancers face. Will it all pay off in Beijing?