BY MICHAEL PAVITT

Breakdancing, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing have been touted as the favourites to be included as additional sports on the Olympic Games programme for Paris 2024.

French radio station France Info has claimed a final decision is expected to be made by organisers on Thursday (February 21).

This has reportedly been denied by Paris 2024.

Paris 2024 are due to submit their recommendations for new sports before the International Olympic Committee Executive Board is due to meet in Lausanne from March 26 to 28.

The IOC Session in June will then offer provisional approval before the new additions are officially confirmed by the Executive Board in December 2020.

Sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing were all included on the Tokyo 2020 programme as additional sports.

The trio are hoping to remain on the programme, along with baseball/softball and karate, which were also added by Japanese organisers.

Breakdancing’s prospects are believed to have been boosted by the sport’s appearance at the last year’s Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. 

The Games in Argentina’s capital city marked breakdancing’s debut at an Olympic competition.

A proposal for breakdancing’s inclusion was put forward by the French Dance Sport Federation led by Charles Ferreira.

Breakdancing’s potential inclusion has earned criticism in some quarters, however, with a debate over who represents the sport emerging.

The World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) were responsible for overseeing the sport’s inclusion at Buenos Aires 2018.

Erwin Mahroug, President of breakdancing media company bboyworld, has claimed the community have not been involved in any attempts to include it at Paris 2024.

The company, which claim they have over five million subscribers, helped in the selection of breakdancers at Buenos Aires 2018.

Mahroug wrote that the “breakin community was quite angry on how the Youth Olympic Games unfolded and voiced their negative opinion throughout various global media platforms”, adding that a lobbyist and owner of an investment company have been behind the effort.

“These two individuals have projected to the WDSF and the IOC that they are the voice of the breakin community,” Mahroug wrote.

“However, this is not the case.

“Up until the leak of the news that the IOC will be voting on whether breakin will be included in the 2024 Games, the breakin community has been in the dark.

“We will not engage, again, to support these two individuals.”

Mahroug claimed the break dancing community do not have a vote within any national governing body or the WDSF, while they claim to have no ability to present to the IOC.

A request to meet with the IOC to discuss the potential inclusion was suggested by Mahroug.

Other calls have been made for the breakdancing to potentially be included at 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, rather than having a potential debut in Paris.

The dispute over who represents breakdancing appears reminiscent of the fractious debate over skateboarding prior to its inclusion on the Tokyo 2020 programme.

The International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS) led skateboarding’s bid for inclusion, despite the International Skateboarding Federation (ISF) and the World Skateboarding Federation claiming to run the sport.

FIRS and ISF later merged to form World Skate, who are overseeing the sport’s debut at Tokyo 2020.

Squash is among the sports to have sought inclusion at Paris 2024.

Squash has campaigned for Olympic inclusion for some time, having been rejected for London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Other sports to have already launched campaigns for inclusion include snooker, chess and the electric motorcycling format Trial-E.

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