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 referred to as “breakdancing” amongst laypeople. You may not be conversant in all of the specifics, however you in all probability get the gist: busting out a spread of advanced strikes—together with flips, twists, headspins, 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 Nineteen Seventies Bronx, is certainly one of 4 core components of hip-hop tradition, in accordance with Purple Bull, the sponsor of worldwide breaking competitors Purple Bull BC One.
Urged on by her dad, a former breaker himself, Edra acquired her begin when she was seven years outdated and immediately fell in love. Utilizing the stage title “Logistx” (her dad’s coinage), she has since risen to the 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 largest victory (up to now) got here in 2021: That November, she beat Russian opponent Vavi to win the world championship on the Purple Bull BC One World Last in Poland.
In mild of breaking’s runaway success on the 2018 Summer time Youth Olympic Video games in Buenos Aires (viewership topped 1 million, in accordance with NBC), Olympics officers determined that it might lastly make its solution to the most important stage of all of them. On August 9 and 10, greater than 30 B-boys and B-girls (as breakers are identified) 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 lately partnered with snack pouch firm GoGo squeeZ. “I’d 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 enable 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 gymnasium together with training breaking. Whereas coaching (which she sometimes does solo), Edra likes to modify up what she’s listening to: By her personal admission, the “shuffle” characteristic is her greatest buddy. “I at all times cowl a brand new track each week, and that turns into my track for a number of days, after which I uncover a brand new track and I’ll be listening to that,” she says. When SELF caught up along with her earlier than the Video games, she shared a number of of her favorites in the mean time.
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 dad and mom getting mad.
