Cricket at the Summer Olympics

Lore & Background

After decades of opposition from major cricket boards, including the BCCI and ECB, the ECB withdrew its opposition in 2015. In 2020, USA Cricket saw inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a long-term goal, and the BCCI decided to back the ICC's bid after clarifications from the IOC. On 16 October 2023, the IOC confirmed cricket's inclusion in the 2028 Olympics, with only two members voting against it.

Reader's Guide

Cricket's Olympic history is minimal but notable for its rarity and the circumstances of its sole appearance. The 1900 tournament was a low-key affair, with neither team being a true national side, and the match itself barely avoided a draw. The sport's long absence from the Games reflects the historical opposition from key cricket boards, particularly the BCCI and ECB, who were reluctant to cede control of the sport's schedule. The shift in stance in the 2010s, culminating in the 2023 IOC vote, marks a significant change. The 2028 reintroduction will feature the Twenty20 format, which is shorter and more suited to the Olympic schedule. The inclusion raises complex questions about team eligibility, as the United Kingdom competes as Great Britain but cricket is played by separate national teams (England, Scotland, Ireland). Similarly, the West Indies cricket team covers multiple Olympic associations, and players from those territories could represent their own countries. The 2028 tournament will likely reshape international cricket's relationship with the Olympic movement.

Did You Know?

• Cricket was originally scheduled for the 1896 Athens Olympics but was cancelled due to insufficient entries.
• The 1900 French team was mostly English expatriates and is officially considered a mixed team.
• The 1900 match ended with Great Britain winning by 158 runs.
• Cricket's return in 2028 was approved by the IOC with overwhelming support.

A Historic Debut on the Paris Stage

Breaking made its long-awaited Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Games, becoming the first dancesport discipline ever featured in a Summer Olympics. The competition took place over two days, 9 and 10 August, at the iconic Place de la Concorde, giving the sport a grand and highly visible setting. Sixteen male breakers and sixteen female breakers each entered separate medal events, competing in face-to-face single battles.

The format was structured in two distinct phases. The opening round-robin stage divided competitors into four groups, with each breaker dancing against their groupmates for one minute per round. After these preliminary encounters, the two highest-ranked dancers from each group earned a berth in the knockout stage. There, the stakes rose sharply: a single lost one-on-one match meant immediate elimination. This blend of group scoring and single-elimination pressure created a format that rewarded both consistency and peak performance under the spotlight.

The Art of Judging a Battle

Each battle was evaluated by a panel of nine judges who applied five equally weighted criteria. Technique assessed the precision of moves alongside athleticism, body control, and spatial awareness. Vocabulary rewarded breadth and variety, expecting breakers to demonstrate toprock, downrock, and freeze elements in diverse positions. Execution focused on how cleanly each move was performed and how distinctly one transitioned into the next without blending. Musicality measured a breaker's ability to react to and express the music selected by a tournament staff DJ—tracks the competitors had never heard before. Finally, Originality captured the moment a breaker made the dance unmistakably their own and wowed the audience.

For every round, judges cast a vote for the competitor they favored, and the majority vote determined the round winner. After the full match concluded, total rounds won and cumulative votes were revealed. The musical backdrop drew from a cleared library of 390 songs spanning hip hop, soul, funk, jazz, latin, and rock—many of which are staples of breaking competitions worldwide.

Earning a Place in Paris

The road to the inaugural Olympic breaking medals was a multi-stage qualification process designed to balance global representation with competitive merit. A total of 32 quota spots—split evenly between male and female events—were available, with each National Olympic Committee permitted to enter at most four breakers, two per gender.

More than 80 percent of the quota was distributed through a tripartite system. The 2023 WDSF World Championships in Leuven, Belgium, awarded direct Olympic spots to the top male and female champions. Five additional places went to the highest-ranked eligible breakers at designated continental meets across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. The remaining slots were contested in a four-month Olympic Qualifier Series running from March to June 2024 across various global locations. France, as host, reserved one spot per gender, and four further universality invitations were extended to eligible NOCs whose breakers had finished within the top 32 of the qualifier series. In the end, 33 breakers from 16 nations took the floor.

Beyond Paris: Future and Controversy

Breaking's Olympic journey is anything but settled. Although Paris organizers selected it as an optional sport—joining sport climbing and surfing—citing its alignment with a youth-focused urban vision, the discipline is not currently on the 2028 Los Angeles programme. That Games' optional sports list instead features baseball, softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash. The World DanceSport Federation has reportedly been working to secure breaking's inclusion at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, keeping the sport's Olympic future uncertain.

The Paris debut was not without turbulence. The event drew significant social media controversy surrounding Australian breaker Rachael Gunn, whose performance and clothing choices sparked heated online debate. This was compounded by an extended wave of bullying directed at her following the spread of misinformation. The episode highlighted the intense scrutiny that comes with a sport's first appearance on the world's biggest stage, where every detail is magnified and the line between fan engagement and harassment can blur quickly.