Taiwanese break dancer Sun Chen (孫振) on Sunday secured his place as Taiwan’s first B-boy to compete in Olympic breakdancing after taking part in the second leg of the discipline’s qualifier series in Budapest, Hungary.
With breakdancing making its debut as an event at the quadrennial summer Olympics, a two-part Olympic Qualifier Series was held in Shanghai, China, and Budapest to finalize the competitors in four “urban sports” disciplines announced by the International Olympic Committee
The other three events were BMX freestyle, skateboarding and sport climbing, all of which debuted at the Olympics after 2000.
Photo courtesy of Red Bull
After a two-year selection process and competitive events, 40 B-boys (male break dancers) and 40 B-girls (female break dancers) were chosen to compete against each other from May 16 to May 19 in Shanghai, followed by the most recent dance-off from Thursday last week to Sunday in Budapest, to vie for a chance to compete in the inaugural breakdancing event at the Olympics.
Breakers placing in the top seven from the combined rankings in Shanghai and Budapest qualified to compete in Paris next month.
Taiwan’s Sun, better known as “B-boy Quake,” placed 10th overall.
He first placed seventh when competing with a leg injury last month in Shanghai, taking painkillers to help dance through the pain.
However, after reaching the quarter-finals, Sun was outdanced by China’s Qi Xiangyu (亓祥宇).
In Budapest, after dancing his way into the round-of-16, Sun on Sunday competed against other B-boys from the US, the Netherlands and Ukraine, but was unable to make it into the quarter-finals and placed 15th.
With a combined score of 60 out of 100, Sun took 10th place, securing his qualification for Paris.
The National Olympic Committees placed a limit of two dancers from each country in the qualifiers, which ensured Sun’s inclusion after Japan and the US exceeded their quota.
Sun released a statement through his agency saying he is honored to represent Taiwan next month, adding that he would do his best to do justice to his dream of competing at the Olympics.
Born on Sept. 21, 1999 — the day Taiwan was hit by a major earthquake measuring magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale which caused widespread destruction and killed 2,456 people while injuring 10,718 — the character of Sun’s first name means “vibrate” in Mandarin. His English nickname is Quake.
Sun’s coach Su Chih-peng (蘇志鵬) said Quake was under a lot of pressure before Budapest as he had just recovered from his leg injury.
Su added that after Sun’s qualification, he hoped the nation would begin to value breakdancing as a sport and do more to cultivate it.
“There are many countries in the world, and yet Taiwan was able to make it to the Olympics,” he said.
“The achievement was not easy, but it also allows the world to see Taiwan’s breaking and the sport could be further cultivated, so one day maybe more people can represent Taiwan,” he added.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS