On February 25, Beijing time, the 2023 Breakdancing Olympic Points Tournament World Series ended in Kitakyushu, Japan, and 17-year-old Chinese player Liu Qingyi won the women's championship all the way and won the first major event of the year for the Chinese breakdancing team.
Liu Qingyi
A good start to the fight for "Paris tickets"
As breakdancing became an official sport at the Paris Olympics, this highly ornamental and popular sport among teenagers has exploded in popularity in recent years, with intense music, rhythmic and passionate movements, and incredible extreme movements, making breakdancing popular all over the world. Of course, what really intoxicated Chinese teenagers was the birth of 17-year-old Liu Qingyi, and people saw the hope of the Chinese team to win the Olympic gold medal.
Kitakyushu Station in Japan is the first Olympic points event this year and the first major event after the official establishment of the Chinese breakdancing national team, the team sent 6 players to compete, the men's team includes: Shang Xiaoyu, Qi Xiangyu, Zhang Xinjie; The women's team includes: Liu Qingyi, Zeng Yingying, Zheng Ziyan. All six players advanced to the qualifying round on the first day, after which three male players stopped at the round of 32. In the women's team, Zheng Ziyan stopped in the round of 32, Zeng Yingying missed the opportunity to advance after encountering a strong opponent in the round of 16, and Liu Qingyi successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.
On the 25th, the final day, Liu Qingyi defeated Japanese veteran Ayumi Fukushima 2-0 in the quarterfinals, and defeated Italy's Andy 3-0 in the semifinals. In the final, facing his "old rival", two-time world champion and Japan's Ami Yuasa, Liu Qingyi played to the fullest, and finally won the championship 2:1, making a good start for the Chinese breakdancing team in a crucial year for qualification for the Paris Olympics.
As a new Olympic event, breakdancing will make its debut at Paris 2024, featuring 16 men and 16 women.
According to the breakdancing qualification system for the Paris Olympics, the men's and women's champions of the World Championships in September will go directly to Paris, and the champions of the Intercontinental Games or Championships in the same year will also qualify for the Olympic Games, a total of 5 men and 5 women, and the remaining 10 Olympic places for men and women must be obtained through Olympic qualifications. In early January, when the Chinese breakdancing national team was established, Yin Guochen, president of the China DanceSport Federation, said that the team's goal was to strive for a direct place at the World Championships and Asian Games.
Liu Qingyi (front)
At the age of 17, he is already a famous player
In last year's "This is Street Dance" program, Captain Wang Yibo said that the breaking results of Chinese street dance have gone to the world and have developed in a better direction! At that time, he had already noticed that Liu Qingyi won the championship in the World Series.
In August 2022, Liu Qingyi, who was under 17 years old at the time, won the women's 1-on-1 singles championship in the world's top breakdancing event "Outbreak", defeating Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, which was the first world breakdancing top event won by China. In the men's competition, China's Shang Xiaoyu entered the semifinals and also achieved a breakthrough.
As a new sport for the 2024 Olympic Games, China started late, but it is gradually improving its level in domestic and foreign events. In recent years, a group of outstanding members of the Chinese breakdancing team have emerged, including: Shang Xiaoyu, Qi Xiangyu, Liu Qingyi, Rui Xuanqi, Zeng Yingying and so on.
In September 2021, Liu Qingyi won the first breakdancing (women's) championship of the National Games, and then was selected for the Chinese national team and began to prepare for the Paris Olympics; In December 2021, at the World Breakdancing Championships in France, Liu Qingyi finished 9th in her first international competition. In July 2022, Liu Qingyi reached the final four of the women's breakdancing category at the World Games.
Proofreading by Xu Heng