Team USA's Victor Montalvo Takes Home Bronze in Breaking After Sport's Olympics Debut

Team USA triumphed during breaking’s first year as an Olympic sport, with American b-body Victor taking home the bronze medal.

On Saturday, August 10, Victor (whose full name is Victor Montalvo) won the bronze medal match 3-0 against Japan’s Shigekix at La Concorde in Paris, according to a statement from Team USA.

The 30-year-old’s victory came just after losing to France’s Dany Dann in the semi-finals, while Canada’s Phil Wizard defeated Shigekix. Montalvo initially finished atop Group A, according to Team USA, and defeated Amir of Kazakhstan 3-0 in the quarterfinal knockout round.

B-boy Victor from Team USA competes against B-boy Amir from Team Kazakhstan.

Steph Chambers/Getty

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Phil Wizard, whose real name is Philip Kim, ended up taking home the gold medal for Canada, with France’s Dany Dann taking silver.

The breaking competitions at the Paris Olympics on Friday and Saturday featured 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls — the colloquial term for a breaker or breakdancer — going head-to-head as a panel of judges judged the matches based on six different criteria: creativity, personality, technique, diversity, performance and musicality.

“Athletes will use a combination of powerful moves – including windmills, 6-steps and freezes – while adapting their style and improvising to the beat of a DJ track in an attempt to secure judges’ votes and take home their first Olympic medal smashing victory,” the official Olympic website explained. games.

The sport — which was previously part of the Youth Olympics at the 2018 Summer Games, marking the first time any form of dance sport was an Olympic event — has its roots in the street culture of New York City in the 1970s.

From left: France’s Dany Dann (silver), Canada’s Phil Wizard (gold) and America’s Victor Montalvo (bronze) pose during the podium ceremony.

ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty

Sunny (real name Sunny Choi), 35, who was one of two b-girls on Team USA this year, previously spoke about how important it is for the US to show its dominance in the sport. “I don’t know how often people say, ‘You have no choice. Like, you have to bring it home to New York,'” she told CBS News.

“[We] Try to be respectful of where we come from, where this dance comes from, and we want to bring some of that shine back to the community as we go for this on the big stage,” Choi added at a press conference on Aug. 6, per the outlet.

Montalvo, who is originally from Florida, previously talked about why he is passionate about breaking in an interview with Team USA, explaining that he first learned the sport from his cousin when he was just 9 years old.

“It was something so amazing,” he said. “I just loved the music and the way it made me feel. I’m a super shy kid, so it was perfect for me because you don’t need to talk to anyone. You just need the dance floor and yourself. So for me it was like a really great art form of slash sports.”

Team USA’s Victor celebrates on the podium during the Breaking B-Boys medal ceremony.

Steph Chambers/Getty

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Team USA’s B-girls failed to take home any medals in Paris. During the round-robin portion of the competition, 21-year-old Logistx (real name Logan Edra) had three wins, and 35-year-old Sunny (real name Sunny Choi) had two wins, but neither reached the quarterfinals. In the women’s category, the Japanese Ami won the gold medal, and the Lithuanian Nicka won the silver in the final.

“I feel like I still shined and I feel like I still represented the dance and had some moments,” Logistx said after her battles, according to CBS News. “It was such a big opportunity, it’s such a big platform and I’m really happy we’re here.”

To find out more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com and check out the live coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympic newsletter, to receive the biggest stories from the Games straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics starting July 26 on NBC and Peacock.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education