Japanese B-Girls sweep podium for the second time as breakout star B-Boy Lee claims OQS double (2024)

It was a repeat of the breaking final from one month ago. Two Japanese B-Girls, two friends, battling it out for the top spot at the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Budapest on Sunday (23 June).

On the red side, B-Girl Ayumi, winner of OQS Shanghai who celebrated her 41st birthday the day before, and on the blue, Shanghai second-place finisher B-Girl Ami.

Once the three rounds came to an end, Ami walked over to her teammate and put an arm over her shoulder as they waited together for the scores to come up.

The scores flashed up on screen. Ami had swept the first round unanimously, but Ayumi took round two by a narrow margin. The third round gave Ami the victory.

“Usually, if I get to the final, I just enjoy the final. But today, my motivation was to win," Ami said after. "I just tried to push myself. At Shanghai, I wanted to be top four, then maybe I have good motivation for Budapest. But this time, I was like, 'OK, this is the last qualification, so I just want to win'. That was the difference.”

Ayumi was the first to embrace her as they celebrated another podium sweep for the Japanese B-Girls – teammate Riko finished third, same as in Shanghai – and both having secured Paris 2024*.

It was a journey that begun early in the morning for the B-Girls. Each went through three battles in the round robin stage, followed by intense quarter-finals and semi-finals.

But they saved the best for last, celebrating the sweep in front of a packed arena, which included Japanese park skater Hasegawa Mizuho, sitting in the stands with a skateboard at her feet.

Ami mixed power moves with her signature hunched shuffle to take the win, while Ayumi impressed with intricate footwork. The sport veteran later admitted that she was still struggling with pain from the injury she suffered at the Shanghai stage of the Olympic Qualifier Series.

"Even after returning to Japan, I couldn’t practise at all," Ayumi said. "It’s the usual hernia symptoms in my right neck, causing a feeling of pressure and making it impossible to move if I practise. It took a long time to heal, but about two weeks before departing for Budapest, I started being able to move and practice to prepare for the OQS.

"I was nervous today. There were many things I didn’t do well in the final, but I’m glad I could stand on the final stage in Budapest. After participating in Olympic qualifying competitions for several years, today’s OQS marked a significant milestone for me, so I just want to take a moment to praise myself."

Ami and Ayumi were among 20 breakers who secured Paris 2024 quotas via the Olympic Qualifier Series. The list also includes B-Girls Syssy, Logistx, Ying Zi, Kate, Anti, Vanessa, Stefani, and Senorita Carlota, and the B-Boys Lee, Hongten, Hiro10, Lithe-Ing, Jeffro, Amir, Menno, Quake, Kuzya and Lagaet.

*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.

Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.

• Breaking at the Olympic Qualifier Series: Everything you need to know
• Qualification and points system unveiled for Olympic Qualifier Series

B-Boy Lee proves he is not a one-hit wonder

B-Boy Lee of the Netherlands emerged as a surprise winner at OQS Shanghai where he topped the men’s podium despite sitting in a comparatively low 12th place in the Olympic Qualification System Ranking List at the time. In Budapest, he showed his victory was not down to pure luck with another winning performance.

The back-to-back wins at the Olympic Qualifier Series moved him high enough in the rankings to secure a Paris 2024 ticket.

“I feel amazing. I feel relieved. I’ve been working really hard for Shanghai, for Budapest, so a very relieving feeling, but still not fully satisfied yet. I still got to work really hard," Lee said. "I got my ticket to Paris, but obviously I also want to get on that podium as well."

Running onto the dancefloor with a splayed-out palm in front of his face, Lee impressed the judges with his parallel-to-the-floor freezes to take a 2-1 win over B-Boy Amir of Kazakhstan.

The stakes were even higher for Amir who had underperformed in Shanghai, finishing 15th, and was now trying to battle up the ranks in the hopes of securing a Paris 2024 quota. To make sure he did not faulter, Amir brought a secret weapon to Budapest - his wife.

"This was the first event when my wife came with me," he said. "She was always with me and because of this I felt much calmer and more confident. I think this greatly influenced the result."

Amir battled through the rounds in his usual all-black outfit and silver-studded belt, dropping dramatic freezes and windmills that could rival the best of those seen in artistic gymnastics competitions.

"I don’t even like to call my style breaking," Amir said after taking second place and securing a Paris 2024 quota. "For me, breaking is primarily about art. I treat it as art, and because of this, I always try to look at it in depth and create something new. But when you are looking at something in depth, it is less clear to other people. This is how it is, but in competitions you have to stay within the boundaries. The judges need to understand you. Spectators need to understand you. And for me, it’s not easy to keep within these boundaries."

Like Amir, B-Boy Hongten of the Republic of Korea is also easy to spot due to his signature moves, such as the upside-down walk, and his flair for comedic showmanship.

A crowd favourite, Hongten was smiling through all his battles and doing friendly stabs against fellow B-Boys. Even after losing to Lee in the semi-final, the 39-year-old never lost his spirit and returned stronger than before to take the win over B-Boy Issin of Japan.

Issin’s fourth-place finish put him lower in the rankings than his teammate, B-Boy Hiro10, who ended up getting the last available quota for the Japanese B-Boys.

From Budapest to Paris: The breaking party comes to Place de la Concorde

While the athletes fought off exhaustion after a gruelling day of breaking battles, the spectators were simply grateful to enjoy the party.

The arena erupted in cheers when the MCs asked how many people were seeing breaking for the first time. And everybody seemed eager to get to know this newly discovered sport – a boy dancing off to the side while Olympic hopefuls battled to the same beat just metres away, a heavily pregnant woman nodding appreciatively while watching a battle, and a TV cameraman unable to stop his legs from shuffling to the beat of a "Billie Jean" remix.

USA's B-Girl Logistx hopes to feel this atmosphere in Paris when the breaking competition begins on 9 August.

"I want them to see the culture," Logistx said when asked what she hopes spectators will take away from watching her sport. "You may see all these other sports doing their thing, competing, competing. But when you see breaking, you see hip hop, you see black culture. You see the marginalised voices. We're probably one of the only groups in the Olympics, one of the only sports in the Olympics that is representing this. I think we are the only one that is directly representing the voices of the people that have been oppressed. Hip hop was birthed as a liberation from that oppression, so I just hope that they see that.

"But more so, I hope they see that if they don't feel like they can fit into these other sports, anyone can fit into breaking because It's dance. It's for everybody. It's literally all one people, that's what we represent. It's unity. It's love, unity, and having fun."

OQS Budapest breaking finals - Results

Men

1. B-Boy Lee (NED)
2. B-Boy Amir (KAZ)
3. B-Boy Hongten (KOR)

Women

1. B-Girl Ami (JPN)
2. B-Girl Ayumi (JPN)
3. B-Girl Riko (JPN)