Being a face of a newly minted Olympic sport would stress out anybody, not to mention somebody who’s barely out of her teenagers. However Logan Edra, a 21-year-old California native who now lives in Florida, is dealing with the strain with extra chill than athletes twice her age. “If I fail, then I fail,” she tells SELF. So for now she’s going “step-by-step, taking it in the future at a time” as she prepares to tackle the 2024 Paris Video games.
That’s the place Edra will make her Olympic debut in breaking, a “dance sport” extra generally generally known as “breakdancing” amongst laypeople. You won’t be acquainted with all of the specifics, however you in all probability get the gist: busting out a spread of complicated strikes—together with flips, twists, head spins, and extra—to the rhythmic strains of hip-hop music. And that soundtrack wasn’t chosen at random: Breaking, which originated within the Black and Hispanic communities of the Seventies Bronx, is one in every of 4 core parts of hip-hop tradition, in response to Purple Bull, the sponsor of worldwide breaking competitors Purple Bull BC One.
Urged on by her dad, a former breaker himself, Edra bought her begin when she was seven years previous and immediately fell in love. Utilizing the stage title “Logistx” (her dad’s coinage), she has since risen to the very best echelons of the self-discipline, nabbing first place on the 2018 Silverback Open Championships and the 2020 Junior Breaking 7ToSmoke Radikal Forze Jam. However her greatest victory (thus far) got here in 2021: That November, she beat Russian opponent Vavi to win the world championship on the Purple Bull BC One World Remaining in Poland.
In gentle of breaking’s runaway success on the 2018 Summer season Youth Olympic Video games in Buenos Aires (viewership topped 1 million, in response to NBC), Olympics officers determined that it might lastly make its method to the largest stage of all of them. On August 9 and 10, greater than 30 B-boys and B-girls (as breakers are recognized) will face off in Paris in one-on-one “battles” soundtracked by a DJ and narrated by an MC. And Edra will probably be proper there watching all of it occur.
“It’s thrilling that breaking is on this stage proper now,” says Edra, who just lately partnered with snack pouch firm GoGo squeeZ. “I might say our attain is rising, our visibility. And I believe all of us simply hope that it doesn’t diminish the tradition [of breaking], however extra so permit it to have extra retailers to be shared with the world.”
Given the athleticism and technical ability required of B-boys and B-girls—have you ever seen Edra’s one-handed handstand spin?!—it shouldn’t come as a shock that they should hit the health club together with training breaking. Whereas coaching (which she usually does solo), Edra likes to change up what she’s listening to: By her personal admission, the “shuffle” function is her greatest buddy. “I all the time cowl a brand new track each week, and that turns into my track for a couple of days, after which I uncover a brand new track and I’ll be listening to that,” she says. When SELF caught up together with her earlier than the Video games, she shared a couple of of her favorites for the time being.
1. “Trendsetter” by Connor Value and Haviah Mighty
This track is fairly dope. I really like rap that’s clear and never as express. I believe it’s cool to have that as a result of I can play it round youngsters and never fear about their mother and father getting mad.
