· B-girl Law is preparing for the final phase of the qualifiers in Shanghai and Budapest events, to access the Paris 2024 Olympic Game
Laura García and the art of Breaking: “The Games are going to bring a wave of good things for people who want to dedicate themselves to Breaking professionally.”
Breaking will debut this summer in Paris as an Olympic discipline. The most urban and artistic modality will pit b-girls and b-boys from all over the planet against each other to win the Olympic medal. One of the dancers who is fighting to get a place among the 16 athletes and see herself battling in the Plaza de la Concordia, is Laura García.
The winner of MUS 2021, two-time Red Bull BC One champion and two-time Spanish champion, plays the qualifier in the two Olympic qualifyier series in the capitals of Shanghai in May and Budapest in June.
“My preparation for those two events is more of a state of mind, of telling myself, I can, I can be there,” explains Laura García regarding how she prepares for this pre-Olympic phase.”
After eleven years dedicating herself to Breaking professionally, the dancer faces the Olympic challenge with great enthusiasm, but without putting any extra pressure on herself: “At first it is true that I was more pressured because it was something new.
But now with all these years that I have been dancing, doing a style, and with that mental maturity, I don’t put that pressure on myself” and she adds that, “I simply take it as another championship.” It’s true that it has a certain importance, but if I don’t get that place, I’m going to continue dancing.”
“I have had to ask myself several questions: Do I really want to make it to the Olympics? And I have needed to work on them mentally”
Laura García not only prepares mentally. Her physical preparation includes resistance routines that allow her to endure three battles. One of the ways to achieve this is by simulating it with other people she trains with, representing situations that she can encounter with other b-girls. She plays with music, spontaneity and seeks to clean movements that can prevent injuries or falls. “I am inspired by the fact that I am training with other people and other times I am also alone,” she explains about her daily routine.
The change to Olympic modality has led to modifications in the championships organized by the WDSF, in which they now separate b-girls from b-boys.
Mixed events have always represented the essence of Breaking “this is an art and has no gender” but the separation of genders in competitions has had good consequences for the women who practice it: “As there are more female references, there are more girls who join.” They encourage and what they say, well if she can do it, I can do it,” declares Laura García about the changes that the dancers feel.
Law, who has had several injuries this year and the reason why he could not participate in Extreme Barcelona 2023, reflects on the hardness of this discipline: “I have had injuries throughout this Olympic cycle, I had a rib injury” and about those injuries he explains: “I have not stopped for more than a month in my life, but it is true that breakers, being so self-taught, no one tells us what we have to do to avoid getting injured.”
“I am an artist, I am making art. Of course, seeing yourself in the Olympics or fighting for an Olympic position, which is the pinnacle of sport, has been a shock and I have to be mentally aware of what I am doing and what my identity is,” he reflects on the unique moment in which he finds and knowing that she must be clear about what breaking represents for her.
We wish Law the best of luck for the Olympic qualifiers and hope to see her at the upcoming Urban World Series events!