Phil Wizard showcases breaking to the world at Paris 2024 – and wins gold
Nobody could beat the Wiz in Paris.
Team Canada’s Phil Wizard (Philip Kim) won every battle he faced on Saturday at Paris 2024, winning the inaugural gold medal in Olympic breaking. Wizard, one of the top breakers in the world, defeated France’s Dany Dann in the final.
While Wizard looked calm, composed and stress free on the outside, like any athlete making their Olympic debut, he didn’t exactly feel that way.
“I’m glad it did not look like it. I was stressed out of my mind,” Wizard said after the event. “It’s been a whirlwind of emotions. I said this in a previous interview yesterday, I cried my eyes out because I was so scared to do this. There’s been a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations. I’m glad I was able to deliver, but more than anything, I’m glad I just enjoyed the moment.”
READ: Phil Wizard dances to the top of the podium in breaking’s Olympic debut
Wizard showed why he’s one of the best of the world, losing just one round in the six battles he took part in. Wizard said he was more focused on enjoying the moment than winning, a state-of-mind that led him to capturing a gold medal for Team Canada.
“I truly had a lot of fun today. To share the stage with the fellow competitors, they are some of the best in the world, some of my closest friends, and people I’ve competed with – and alongside and against – for many, many years now. And this is history in the making for us. So it’s incredible.”
While breaking may be new to the mainstream sports world, it’s hardly new to Wizard. The 27-year-old started breaking in 2009 on the streets of Vancouver with the Now or Never and Soul Felons crews. His stage name, “Phil Wizard,” came from constantly being introduced as “Phil from the Wizards crew.”
In recent years, Wizard has become a power on the world breaking stage. After winning silver at the 2021 WDSF Breaking World Championships, he won his first gold in 2022. He won silver at the world championships last year and also won gold with Team Canada at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games.
It was at the Pan Am Games where Wizard secured a spot for Paris 2024.
Breaking is a judged event with each athlete being scored on technique, vocabulary, originality, execution and musicality, as well as the overall impression. Unlike other artistic events such as gymnastics or figure skating, breakers don’t know what music they are going to have to perform to, forcing each to improvise once on stage.
The entire B-Boy event was held on Saturday and began with a round robin phase of 16 competitors. Each breaker was placed in a group of four with each facing off within their group in two-round battles.
Oddly enough, Wizard’s first matchup in the round robin was against Dany Dann, which saw the Canadian win both rounds by a combined vote count of 13-5. Wizard then faced Kuzya of Ukraine with each winning a round apiece but votes were 10-8 in favour of the Canadian. In his final preliminary matchup, Wizard easily beat Australia’s J Attack, taking both rounds with votes 17-1 in favour of Wizard.
The elimination round saw each matchup have three rounds. In the quarterfinals, Wizard defeated Lee of the Netherlands 3-0 (19-8) and then, in one of his toughest battles, downed top-seeded Shigekix of Japan 3-0 (17-10) to advance to the final.
In the gold medal battle, round one was tight, with Wizard edging Danny Dann 5-4 in votes. But the Canadian grabbed control in the final two rounds and took advantage of an error by the Frenchman in the third round. Wizard won the final 3-0 with votes 23-4.
Wizard’s deep repertoire of tricks was evident in the final. The Canadian showcased a number of maneuvers he hadn’t utilized earlier in the competition.
“Dany Dann’s an incredible competitor and we’re in his hometown France,” Wizard told CBC after the competition. “My goal today truly wasn’t to win, it was just to enjoy myself on the stage and I felt like I really accomplished that. And that’s what I’m proud of.”
The long-term future of breaking as an Olympic sport is unknown at this point. It’s not planned to be part of Los Angeles 2028. Wizard could end up being not only the first Olympic gold medallist in breaking, but also the only.
Wizard isn’t focused on that. He hopes the showcase he – and the other Paris 2024 breakers – provided inspire more people to get involved in the sport.
“I hope it opens doors for people. I mean, I’ve dedicated my life to this and so have all of us competing today and I think it’s an under appreciated sport. I hope that today was a perfect example of showing the world how incredible breaking is. That was truly my only goal here. I’m so grateful and I’m so happy to come out with the win. But more than anything, I just want to show the world what breaking is. And I think we did a fantastic job today of doing that.”
