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 stress 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 often called “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 Nineteen Seventies Bronx, is one in every of 4 core parts of hip-hop tradition, based on Pink Bull, the sponsor of worldwide breaking competitors Pink Bull BC One.
Urged on by her dad, a former breaker himself, Edra bought her begin when she was seven years outdated and immediately fell in love. Utilizing the stage identify “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 largest victory (up to now) got here in 2021: That November, she beat Russian opponent Vavi to win the world championship on the Pink Bull BC One World Ultimate 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, based on NBC), Olympics officers determined that it will lastly make its strategy 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 shall 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 feel all of us simply hope that it doesn’t diminish the tradition [of breaking], however extra so permit it to have extra shops to be shared with the world.”
Given the athleticism and technical talent 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 working towards breaking. Whereas coaching (which she usually does solo), Edra likes to modify up what she’s listening to: By her personal admission, the “shuffle” function is her finest good friend. “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 together with her earlier than the Video games, she shared a number of of her favorites for the time being.
1. “Trendsetter” by Connor Worth and Haviah Mighty
This track is fairly dope. I like rap that’s clear and never as specific. I feel 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.
