TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s first Olympic breakdancer, Sun Chen (孫振) was eliminated in the preliminary round of 16 at the Paris Olympics on Sunday (Aug. 11).

Sun, aka Quake, finished third in his group, which included Morocco’s Bilal Mallakh (Billy), the Netherlands’ Menno van Gorp (Menno), and Kazakhstan’s Amir Zakirov (Amir). Quake won his first match against Billy but lost to both Menno and Amir, failing to advance to the quarterfinals.

Nine judges evaluated the dancers’ performances based on five criteria: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. Each criterion accounted for 20% of the final score, per Paris 2024.

The Olympic breaking competition featured 16 athletes each in the men’s and women’s categories. The athletes were divided into groups of four, and competitions were held in a one-on-one battle format.

Dancers freestyled to randomly selected music, with each round lasting about a minute. The top two athletes from each group advanced to the quarterfinals.