prodigy Sya Dembélé qualified for the Paris Games – Libération

At 16, the favorite of the Blues rose to fourth place during the last stage of the Olympic qualifying tournaments in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday.

In a mixture of ardor and candor, Sya Dembélé, alias Bgirl Syssy, confided to us: the young athlete loves training so much that her mother is sometimes forced to forbid her. On Sunday, the French champion and world breaking bronze medalist finished fourth at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Budapest (Hungary), earning her ticket to the Paris Games. “I am really happy. It was hard work to be qualified and I am very satisfied with my performance today, it allowed me to test new movements,” reacted the 16-year-old from Saint-Etienne, who joined the breaking pole in September. Insep, created in 2022. That year, it finished 27th at the European Championships for its first official federal competition.

The little sister of Damani Dembélé, another champion of the discipline who will not go to the Games due to injury, has had a resounding season and rise in Budapest. “Everything happened very quickly, I’ve been working on it since September. The entry of the station wagon into the Games changed my life, I study at home and I would never have done that otherwise,” she said in April. In Hungary, armed with her favorite beanie-black sweatshirt-lucky bracelets combo, the elegant 1.76 meter athlete lost in the final to Riko, a native of Japan, the flagship nation of women’s breaking which has invaded all the steps of the podium.

A little less efficient during this TQO, Carlota Dudek (20th), known as Bgirl Carlota, and Gaëtan Alin (13th), known as Bboy Lagaet, also managed to qualify for the Olympics thanks to their world ranking this year. The three join Dany Dann, one of the favorites for the Games, who obtained the first quota of the Blues for Paris thanks to his coronation at the European Games in Poland in the summer of 2023.

An additional sport of the Olympics alongside climbing, skateboarding and surfing, breaking was not selected for Los Angeles 2028. On the Place de la Concorde, on August 9 and 10, their beloved discipline will take center stage …Tricolor? Sya Dembélé prefers to play fair: “It’s a pride to welcome all our competitors that we know well,” rejoices the one who took part in her first French championships at the age of 8. It’s going to be historic!”