On Saturday, Canadian breaking star Philip Kim — known professionally as Phil Wizard — made history as the first-ever men’s Olympic champion in the sport.
But long before he became a gold medallist in Paris, it turns out “The Wiz” was trying to learn a bit of, well, the rizz.
“I started breaking because there was a local crew in my city, Vancouver, in front of the art gallery. At the time, I was just a kid with nothing to do. I saw that, I was like, ‘Oh, I could totally get girls doing that… that would impress people.’ It’s been my life ever since,” Kim said in a clip via the Team Canada social account posted before the event.
Wizard won two of his round-robin battles while also tying one en route to going undefeated in three medal-round battles to clinch the historic gold.
“Yesterday, I was crying because I was so scared to do this,” Kim told CBC following the win. “Just because I’m here winning doesn’t mean that the doubt doesn’t still exist. It’s always there. But as cheesy as it sounds, I get to live the life that I’ve always wanted to live, and I get to enjoy every day, and for that, I’m more than grateful. So to be here in a historic moment like this truly means the world, and I’m just going to enjoy it.”
The 27-year-old Kim admits that the career path wasn’t always the easiest one to convince his family of.
“My parents are immigrants from Korea,” he recalled in an interview with Daily Hive prior to the Games. “They came to Canada to give us a different life. They wanted us to go to school and get an education. And I told them I wanted to be a breakdancer… So definitely a little bit of a shock for them, but they’ve come around.”
Despite gaining some new fans this go around, breaking won’t be on the programme for 2028 when the Olympic Games head to Los Angeles.
At the very least, perhaps without the stress of the Olympics hanging around him, Wizard can inspire a whole new host of breakers, whatever their inspiration may be.