'I am a disco dancer': Bappi-Da, an Olympian inspiration for India?

Why we welcome breakdancing as an Olympic sport.

By ET Bureau | Dec 10, 2020, 07.57 AM IST

Who knows when India may get a chance to propose its own Olympic sport: disco music.

We don’t understand all the fuss being made about breakdancing being included as a sport in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Let’s face it, after golf was reinstated in the 2016 Olympics — it had been included in the 1900 and 1904 editions — everything is, well, game.

Breakdancing, as many aspirants and practitioners of this physical demanding form of street dance from the 1980s know, is certainly more athletic than ‘sportsmen’ walking a lot on grass in between putting balls into holes. As is aesthetic dishwashing.

New International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules introduced for the forthcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympics allow host cities to propose the inclusion of their choice of sports if they appeal to younger audiences.

Along with surfing, skateboarding and sports climbing, Paris has decided to go with breakdancing. It would be safe to presume that organisers who were young in the 1980s when the dance was essentially only to impress members of the opposite gender are now old —and keen — enough to officialise it as a ‘sport’.

May we suggest we all listen and watch Govinda engage in something resembling breakdancing (bit.ly/2Kc6IUf) in the 1986 film Ilzaam to the Bappi Lahiri tune and lyrics comprising almost only ‘I am a streetdancer’. Who knows when India may get a chance to propose its own Olympic sport: disco music.

From Olympics To Football & Cricket: Sports 2020 Stands Cancelled

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The summer of sport is in jeopardy. As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, organisers are cutting their losses and either cancelling or postponing marquee sporting events till the public health crisis abates.

The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed.

Here’s a roundup of all the major sporting events that have been upended by coronavirus.