For many Americans, the highlight of breaking’s Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Games was watching Team U.S.A.’s Victor Montalvo take his place on the podium. After a day-long marathon of freezing, footwork, and flares, “B-Boy Victor” had won his final battle against French silver medalist Dany Dann, securing his place in Olympic and hip-hop history as the bronze medalist in men’s breaking. In the process, he not only did the United States proud but also carried on the legacy of a Bronx-born artform pioneered by young Black and brown men in the ’70s.

Unfortunately, the creativity, musicality, and athleticism displayed by Olympic breakers like Montalvo and fellow Team U.S.A. member Logistx took a backseat to the viral controversy surrounding Australian b-girl Rachel “Raygun” Gunn, whose performance during the women’s semi-finals quickly became a meme and raised questions about the legitimacy of her qualification in a viral petition that’s since been taken down from Change.org.

Breaking’s inclusion at the 2024 Olympics was already contentious, both in and outside the community. For dancers like Montalvo, it was a chance to show the naysayers what breaking actually entails, especially as the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Games won’t include the event. So with Gunn’s performance being the main talking point surrounding breaking’s debut, there’s worry about the dancesport now being reduced to mocking screenshots from Peacock’s now-removed replays.

As of publication, both the semi-finals and finals for men’s and women’s breaking aren’t available on the platform, and the icon that led viewers to the page for breaking has also seemingly disappeared from its Olympics homepage. So despite wanting to focus on his big win, I start our interview by informing Montalvo about the missing stream, which comes as a complete surprise to both the breaker and his team.

It’s a shame, seeing as how the breakers were looking forward to this huge milestone inspiring a lot of young dancers, but Montalvo isn’t jumping to any conclusions. NBC Sports’s official YouTube channel still has Montalvo’s final battle against Japan’s Shigekix for the bronze medal, he points out.

Besides, Montalvo’s convinced that the achievement itself can never be overshadowed by online rumors about another person’s performance. He has some thoughts on the ongoing controversy, but he has mcuh more to say about making history, giving breaking the mainstream visibility it deserves, and representing its birthplace.

The FADER: What was going through your head during that final battle for bronze?

It was just so surreal, like I had goosebumps the whole time. But what was kind of challenging was [everything] going through my mind during that final battle, where I had to mentally get a hold of myself. The whole three weeks in Paris were really challenging, actually, because we were the last sport. Day by day, you're seeing each sport finish, and then you're on social media, where you see the athletes that are getting gold, silver, bronze. And all these thoughts are going through your head, like, “Can I do it?” And of course, there’s doubt. But then you’ve got to reassure yourself like, “No, you got this. You've been in this for a very long time. This is your moment you trained hard for.”

During that final battle, I did lose a little bit of hope because I lost in the semi-finals, and I was being a bit doubtful. But then I picked it back up. I'm like, “Wait a minute. I can still win a medal.”

How would you describe your final performance at the Olympics? Did you bring out any signature moves or take any major stylistic risks?

It's funny: I actually ran out of moves during that battle, so I basically freestyled and improvised. But that's when the essence and the muscle memory kicks in. And I felt free at that moment, because I just didn't care if I won or if I lost. I just wanted to do my best, and I wanted to be there and show them that I was the greatest showman.

So letting go and going with your intuitive flow was the difference between the podium and fourth place?

Yeah. Me, Shigekix, and Phil Wizard are usually the ones on the podium, and we're always switching sides, you know. Either I win first, Shigekix is second, and Phil third, or Phil wins first, I’m second, and Shigekix is third…

So you've already battled all of these people at some point?

Yeah, I've battled all of them, and we've beaten each other a couple times. I've beaten all of them, but I've also lost to all of them. That's the beauty of it: we win, we lose. It's this person's time to shine, or it's my time to shine. We understand the game, and we don't take it personal.

How would you describe your usual style?

I have my structured sets, but I'm more of a freestyle dancer. I like to improvise and go with the flow because that's when you're the most spontaneous. I love surprising myself, and that's what I did towards the finals.

It's like, “All right, it's game time. I’ve been doing this for the past 20 years. I've been competing for the past 15 years, so it's nothing new.” I was really in the zone, and I trust myself. I trust my body, and it was just like, “All right, it's time to do it again.”

As someone representing the country where breaking was invented, did you feel like you were under extra pressure to make it onto the podium?

I felt all the pressure! But you know what I did? I tried to cut out the noise and distract myself. My distraction was surrounding myself with good people who kept me level headed and grounded and just told me positive things. And it worked.

I interviewed [Team USA b-girl] Logistx before the competition, and she was saying that the energy of the crowd is a huge part of breaking. Was it hard to have your final battle with Dany on his home turf?

Yeah, that obviously added to the pressure, but I was also like, “This was so amazing.” We got up there on stage, and all you heard was my side going, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” It just kept getting louder and louder and then, out of nowhere, France just started… I forgot what they said, but they're saying some chant in French, and you couldn't even hear the music. All you heard was the crowd of 5,000 people roaring, and I was on stage just feeling that energy

It was a monumental experience just being there. And the people that witnessed it, they enjoyed it, and it was like that all night. Even before I came out, there was another battle going on, and I was backstage waiting for [my battle], and all I could hear in the back was the crowd going crazy.

I felt like a gladiator going to war on stage, and it was such an amazing feeling.

You said in an interview that you like breaking in “grimy” spaces with graffiti in the back and that connection to hip-hop culture. But now, you’re at the Olympics in Paris, a city that’s always been considered the pinnacle of “high-brow culture,” representing an artform created by young Black and brown men. Did it feel strange?

No. It wasn't strange at all, because France has a big breaking community. I think it's one of the biggest out in the world. I remember my first trips out the country were in France for breaking, and I’ve gone to France like a hundred times.

All over France — south, north, west, east — they treat breaking as an art. The government funds it, and there’s a lot of big stage events, which is different from [the U.S.]. We have our cultural events in smaller, more intimate spaces, but France brought the big stage battles, which are a different type of competition. It's more of a showmanship thing there, which is cool.

So how do you feel about breaking not coming to LA in 2028? Especially since there are a lot of breakers here, too.

I don't feel much about it, to be honest. I'm just grateful that breaking was a part of the Olympics. We made history, and we did our thing. We’ve just been so focused on 2024 that we didn't have time to even think about 2028.

And honestly, this was never our goal. When we found out in 2020 that breaking gonna be in the Olympics,, it was a shock. We did not expect [the Olympics] to be part of [our breaking] journeys, and we did it. We got a chance. We're grateful for it. And if it comes back in 2032, even better.

We've been getting way more viewership, which is awesome. Any type of publicity is good publicity, and now there's people tuning in to breaking and actually watching the whole event. They're becoming fans because of this girl from Australia, and they’re watching breaking right now, like, “It's the most amazing thing ever!”

To see those comments is awesome. And people are like, “Honestly, I started tuning into breaking because of this chick, but it's amazing.”

Is it kind of bittersweet though? A lot of people are accusing her of damaging the “legitimacy” and public perception of breaking.

She was just there to compete. She hasn't spoken up about anything yet, so everything online now is just rumors. This whole social media thing is so funny; people just create their own narratives without knowing the real story.

What do you think the general perception of breaking is after all of this though? You know, there are people saying she turned this artform into a “joke.”

I don’t think she made [breaking] a joke at all. I feel like the people on social media made it a joke, and that's what social media is. It's all about trolling nowadays, but we pay no mind to it because we already know what we're capable of. We're amazing artists, amazing athletes, and we just stay positive.

That's what hip-hop is all about: Staying positive and being all about unity. It’s all about respecting one another. And yeah, there is a negative side, but then there's also a positive because there's now a new generation of kids that are enjoying [breaking]. I'm getting messages from parents who are sending me videos of their kids dancing and enjoying it, and that's what I want. That's a really beautiful thing to see.

*Quotes have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.