This year's Olympics has offered a platform for athletes of all sorts to make their mark — and a bit of history — in France's capital city, Paris.
American breakdancer Sunny Choi has taken full advantage of that opportunity, trawling and whirling her way into national prominence during breaking's Olympic debut.
Choi is one of the 16 standouts gracing the stage at Place de la Concorde. She has plenty of pedigree to her name, even garnering a bit of hardware for her accomplishments on the waxy dance floor.
Like many of her competitors, Choi's journey to the Paris Games was filled with potholes and uncertainty. Now she's here, however. And she hopes to etch her name in the billowing quilt that is the pastime's history with an impressive display on Friday.
Here's what you need to know about Choi, one of the U.S.'s most talented breakdancers whose path to Olympic glory is about as unusual as they come.
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Who is Sunny Choi?
Choi, known by her "B-girl" name "Sunny," is a member of Team USA's Olympic breaking roster. A Cookeville, Tennessee native, Choi didn't grow up breakdancing. Rather, she started during her freshman year of college at Penn, when she joined her university's breakdancing club.
Over the coming few years, Choi developed her craft. She moved to Queens in 2012 and landed a gig as director of global creative operations at Estée Lauder. But Choi couldn't help but keep on pursuing her dream of breaking from one end of the globe to the other.
"What’s so cool about breaking is you get to be authentically you,” Choi said, per Time Magazine. “Nobody dictates who you need to be while you’re dancing.”
In 2019, Choi captured silver at the World Breaking Championships. She continued to participate at the highest level, dovetailing her breaking responsibilities with her work ones. But something had to give. And shortly after finishing second in the 2022 World Games, Choi left Estée Lauder.
She was vindicated for her choice soon after, as she earned her selection to Team USA's inaugural Olympic breaking roster. She's now competing in this year's Summer Olympics.
Sunny Choi's Olympic breaking career starting in style. 🔥#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/Ogzmde5Nc0
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2024
MORE: Explaining the rules, schedule and more to know about breaking debut
What is breaking?
Breaking refers to the performative art of breakdancing, a rhythmic form of dance that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s among enclaves of African-American and Latino youth in the South Bronx.
The dance form-turned-Olympic sport incorporates a number of influences, including the Lindy-hop (a Harlem-based jig from the 1920s), capoeira and, most notably, James Brown.
"There was no mistaking the tough-looking James Brown with his streetwise swagger for the Temptations, whose dance steps were taken from the street but who possessed the sort of supper-club sheen characteristic of crossover Black entertainers," historian Alice Echols wrote in 2008.
Brown in particular was noted for his "lack of restraint" when slaloming across the dance floor.
Breaking is defined by its lack of regimentation. It's a largely improvisational routine, furnished with feints, freezes and power moves.
For much of its early existence, the choreography remained tethered to its South Bronx birthplace. But following the adoption of the art form by popular musicians — including Michael Jackson — breaking entered the mainstream. It has retained its place in the global consciousness in the decades since then.
“Breaking comes from Black and brown communities in the Bronx,” Choi said. “And when it goes to the Olympics, we know these aren’t the ones who are going to get all the money. I think it's our responsibility, as the first breakers who go, to be mindful of this."
