The Weird, Wonderful New Sports at This Year's Olympics

Philip Kim grew up in Vancouver, the child of Korean immigrants who wanted him to pursue a post-secondary education. He surprised them instead when he fell in love with breakdancing—or “breaking” as the sport is officially called—and devoted his teenage years to developing his skills. He even created his own crew called the Wizards; his b-boy name is Phil Wizard. At 18, he won a major competition in L.A. Now he’s on Red Bull’s all-star team and has attracted sponsors like Lululemon and Toyota.

This summer, breaking will be part of the Olympics for the first time, and Kim will be competing for Canada. I’ll be keeping an eye out for a move he recently developed: it’s inspired by swimmers and makes him look like he’s doing front strokes on the floor.

In the August issue of Maclean’s, we feature Kim along with a few other Canadian athletes who are pioneers in non-traditional sports like surfing and skateboarding. Says Kim: “I hope breaking’s place in the Olympics will encourage a new generation to fall in love with the sport, just like I did.”

—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief

Two safe-supply activists supplied clean cocaine, heroin and meth to addicts. The government says they’re drug traffickers. They say they were saving lives.

Canada is already facing a shortage of doctors. A tweak to the government’s controversial new tax legislation would encourage more Canadian physicians to stick around.

She overcame asthma, broken bones and COVID-induced delays, winning a Tokyo gold along the way. Now she’s off to Paris to defend her supremacy.

Subscribe to Maclean’s
We’re telling the stories you need to read. Subscribe to the magazine today!

Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved

SJC Media, 15 Benton Road, Toronto, ON M6M 3G2

You are receiving this message from St. Joseph Communications because you have given us permission to send you editorial features

Unsubscribe