Santiago, Chile –
Canada’s Philip Kim won his first Pan American Games gold in men’s breaking on Saturday and qualified for the Olympics.
The 26-year-old from Vancouver, known in breakdance circles as B-Boy Phil Wizard, defeated Jeff (B-Boy Jeffro) Louis from the USA 3-0 in the final.
Breaking made its debut at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile. The sport will also be an Olympic event for the first time next year in Paris.
“It means a lot,” Kim said. “This whole journey since the beginning of this year, even last year when the whole Olympics was introduced to braking, has been an incredible experience. Being a part of history really means the world to me.”
Kim won the 2022 World Men’s Breaking Championships, finishing second to Victor Montalvo of the United States that year.
The Canadian said he just needs to reach Saturday’s Pan Am Games final to secure his place in Paris because two U.S. men in the sprint cannot achieve direct Olympic quotas.
“Going into the final, I had already secured my spot, but this honestly gave me even more motivation because it would have been bittersweet to secure my spot in Paris and then lose the fight,” Kim said.
“So I had to push extra to get the win. Honestly, the Olympic spot means more to me. I want to be there. I want to be part of history.”
Kim injured his neck while warming up for Friday’s preliminaries and said he was grateful for the Canadian team staff’s work in preparing him for Saturday’s competition.
Tiffany (B-Girl Tiff) Leung of Toronto lost her bronze medal match 0-3 to Vicki (B-Girl La Vix) Chang of the USA.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2023.
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