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Breakdancing arrives at the 2024 Olympics (and then leaves): Khalil Chabouni hopes to represent France
Breakdancing arrives at the 2024 Olympics (and then leaves): Khalil Chabouni hopes to represent France
(SPECIAL SENDING / FRANCE 2)
From the street to Paris 2024: this is the journey of Khalil Chabouni, and also that of his discipline, breakdancing. An art born in the New York Bronx which arrives at the Olympics… for a whirlwind appearance. “Special Envoy” accompanied him to the place where it all began: the working-class district of La Paillade, in Montpellier.
Khalil Chabouni hopes to be among the first Olympic dancers of an art born in the street, with the hip-hop movement. From the streets to the Olympics… the child from the working-class district of La Paillade, in Montpellier, is “proud of the progress made” by breakdancing.
A very brief recognition however, because the discipline will not be on the program for the next Olympics in Los Angeles, in 2028. “It’s really… first time, thank you, goodbye. Hard !”, regrets Khalil Chabouni, who will perhaps, therefore, be the one and only Olympic breaking champion… He has already planned his career change, since, between two training sessions, this young father in the second year of medicine is studying for his exams.
With “Envoyé Spécial”, Khalil Chabouni returned to the places where he grew up and discovered the station wagon, at the end of the 1990s, when “it was dancing all over the halls.” On the square in front of a city or on the podium of the Place de la Concorde where the breaking events will be held during the Olympics, the rules remain the same: improvise to the music without repeating the same figure twice, invent new movements always more athletic.
“The energy of the neighborhood is indescribable. There is something magical that fills you… It is also felt in your dancing, because we are artists, we are not just athletes.”
Khalil Chabouni, breakdancer for the French team,in “Special Envoy”
Dance became, for him, a means of expression as much as an escape from a precarious family life, in “a neighborhood where you could quickly slip into bad company. The break, he can simply divert your destiny.” But it was with the entry of breaking into the Olympic Games that Khalil’s life really changed. He left his hometown for Paris and the INational Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP)where 800 high-level athletes train, and where he has access to sponsors, equipment, medical monitoring, etc.
If he qualifies for Budapest at the end of June, the man who is already a double French breakdance champion will perhaps represent his country at Paris 2024: “A pride, an inspiration for young people here”, greets his coach Lahouari Maachou, manager of the Montpellier Breaking Métropole club.
Excerpt from “Athletes: who will qualify?”, a report to watch in “Special Envoy” on June 20, 2024.
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