Canadian B-Boy Phil Wizard Wins Olympic Gold In Breakdancing

Canada's Philip Kim known as Phil Wizard competes in the Men's Breaking dance quarter-final of the ... [+] Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Concorde in Paris, on August 10, 2024. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

Vancouver local Philip Kim, better known as Phil Wizard, clinched gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics in front of an exuberant crowd. The 26-year-old Korean-Canadian was one of the favorites to win the Men’s Breaking event, where he showed a dominant performance in the gold medal battle against France’s Dany Dann (Danis Civil). U.S. breaker Victor Montalvo, another favorite, won the bronze medal over Japanese breaker Shigekix (Shigeyuki Nakarai).

ForbesOlympian B-Boy Phil Wizard On Breaking, Fashion And AspirationsBy Jason Pu

In an unlikely turn of events, Phil and Dany both started the day in Group B among 16 total breakers in 4 groups, then danced their way through the Top 8 knockout bracket to meet each other in the finals. Performing a total of 15 grueling rounds over the course of the day, Phil also took out the aforementioned Shigekix, as well as Netherland’s Lee (Lee-Lou Demierre).

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Prior to his trip to Paris, Phil Wizard told me, “I want to show all my moves. I have a lot of content and I want to be able to show it all. And what content comes out will be purely based on the moment.” His spontaneous approach and extensive arsenal of skills clearly served him well. In terms of judging criteria, Phil won a number of battles on the back of his outstanding vocabulary and originality.

Phil Wizard joins Japanese b-girl Ami as one of the first, and to date, the only gold medalists in Olympic breaking. All in all, breaking made its Olympic debut with a bang, from memes to truly incredible performances. Breakers, family members, and fans around the world can stand proud knowing that these 33 men and women represented this culture to the fullest on its biggest platform yet.

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