Korean B-Boy Hongten, pushing 40, adds another title to his breaking career: Olympian

Korea’s Hongten fell short of a spot in the quarterfinals — but still did it all with his signature smile.

Korea's Hongten practices during a breaking training session for the Paris Olympics at the Pablo Neruda sport centre in Saint-Ouen, France on Aug. 6. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korea’s Hongten took the stage at La Concorde in Paris on Saturday as his nearly three-decade-long breaking career reached the Olympics. He battled the Netherlands’ Lee, France’s Lagaet and the United States’ Jeffro in the round robin group stage, drawing two and losing one of his three throwdowns to fall short of a spot in the quarterfinals — but still did it all with a smile.

Breaking, with deep roots in African American and hip hop culture, made its Olympic debut in Paris this week, with the men wrapping up the schedule a day after the women’s competition awarded its first breaking Olympic medalists and gave social media a new breakout star, Australia’s Raygun.

And the oldest guy spinning around on his head in the circle was Hongten, who turns 40 years old in December.

Korea's Hongten competes in the round robin stage of the B-Boy competition at the Paris Olympics Saturday at La Concorde in Paris. [AP/YONHAP]

Hongten, whose real name is Kim Hong-yul, has been in the breaking scene for longer than some of his fellow Olympic B-Boys were born.

He rose to fame as a member of the B-boy crew Expression and is a three-time winner of the Red Bull BC One Championship, one of the biggest individual international breaking competitions, winning titles in 2006, 2013 and 2023.

And now, he can say he’s an Olympian.

Where it all began

For the first time, in 2002, a Korean crew won one of the biggest global breaking competitions, Battle of the Year.

That battle threw Korea onto the global breaking scene, including Hongten, one of the members of early 2000s Expression Crew.

But Hongten’s breaking journey began before that. According to his Olympics profile, he picked up breaking when he was 13 years old after a friend introduced him to it.

He later dropped out of high school to travel to different competitions around the globe.

Korea's Hongten battles United States' Jeffro in a quarterfinal match at the Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai, China on May 19. [AP/YONHAP]

And the same year Expression won Battle of the Year, a different Korean crew won the UK B-Boy Championships, cementing Korea’s place in the international breaking community.

And Hongten was there, too, competing with the members of Project Korea.

A year later, Hongten joined another crew, Drifterz, where he was a member until 2020. The group dropped the name after their leader moved away but many continued to perform together as FlowXL, according to a 2021 interview with redbull.com.

In that interview, Hongten also cited “cultural differences” as the reason why there weren’t as many young breakers in Korea compared to other countries.

“A lot of parents don’t want their children to dance because they want them to study and prepare for a career that will financially benefit them in the future, which usually comes from academics. If they support dancing, it’s mostly just a process to become a celebrity,” Hongten said.

“But in countries like Japan and China, I’ve seen parents bring their young children to practice and really support their interests. It’s a simple cultural difference that will really determine if Korea will produce the next generation of breakdancers, or if this culture will stop here.”

Three decades, three titles

Although Hongten is twice the age of some of his fellow B-Boys, he is by no means washed-up.

He won the 2023 Red Bull BC One Championship, beating out 15 other B-Boys for the crown 10 years after winning his last title — and doing it in Paris, where, less than a year later, he’d be at the Olympics. He was also the champion in 2013 — five years after winning his first Red Bull title, in 2006.

Korea's Hong 10 embraces Canada's Phil Wizard after winning at the B-Boy final at the Red Bull BC One Championship in Paris on Oct. 21, 2023. [AFP/YONHAP]

Another breaking Olympian, the Netherlands’ Menno, said Hongten has been at the top for 20 years.

“It is hard to reach the top, but staying there for that long is even harder. I think nobody has managed that like he has,” Menno, whose full name is Menno van Gorp, told olympics.com ahead of the Games.

Menno is the only other B-Boy to have one three Red Bull titles and, at 35 years old, was also one of the oldest B-Boys in Paris.

Road to the Olympics

With slew of international titles under his belt, Hong 10’s precursor to Paris was the Hangzhou Asian Games — where breaking also saw its debut.

Hong 10 made it to the final B-Boy throwdown as the sole Korean to guarantee a podium spot across both the men’s and women’s competitions.

But he took silver, losing out to Japan’s Shigekix — who has often been described in the breaking scene as a young version of Hongten — who was still in the Paris Olympics competition as of press time.

Hongten, left, poses with his silver medal on the podium at the Hanzhou Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Oct. 7, 2023. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Still, Hongten nabbed a spot at the Games with a second-place finish at the Olympic Qualifier Series in China and Hungary to be Korea's first and only representative in the newest Olympic sport.

Japanese B-Girl Ayumi was the only breaker older than Hongten at the Games, at 41 years old.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]