British breakdancer Kid Karam aims high at Paris 2024

Team GB breakdancer Karam Singh is determined to go down in history alongside the best in the world at the Paris Olympics this year.

"I could never say that I was ever going to be an Olympian. But we're here," said British number one Singh, 26, who is currently ranked second in Europe.

In December 2020, it was officially announced that breakdancing would take part in the Olympics for the first time.

Four years on, 16 of the best "B-boys" and "B-girls" will face off in improvised solo battles on the Place de la Concorde square in the heart of the French capital.

"We're kind of here to make history," Singh told AFP, promising to viewers who may not have seen it before that "breaking brings fireworks".

"I think everybody that's going to watch it is going to be sort of astounded by what it is.

 
 
 
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Breakdancing, rooted in hip-hop culture, became popular in the Bronx borough of New York in the 1970s.

Singh, from Derby in central England, discovered it through music videos by artists such as Justin Timberlake in the early 2000s.

He remembers telling his sister that he would become a breaker one day, and made his debut on the stage of a funfair in a local park, where a crew of breakers let him try a few head spins.

"They loved my passion," he said, and recalls rushing to sign up for classes at the age of eight, with a determination to be the best.

In preparation for the last qualifying event and the Olympics, he said he has been training five to six times a week and "enjoying every minute of it."