Sports
As breaking debuts at Olympics, meet the New York DJ behind the Paris party
PARIS — All eyes are on the round boxing ring, where dancers trade air flares instead of jabs under a bright spotlight. But the most influential person in the room stands in the shadows behind a turntable.
It’s where Stephen Fleg does his work.
2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games
More than a neutral referees but less than a dancer at center stage, DJs like him are the backbone of breaking competitions. The New York-based DJ, producer and B-boy is one of two DJs who will be at the controls of breaking’s Olympic debut at Place de la Concorde. DJ Fleg will split duties with Poland’s DJ Plash for the women’s competition Friday and the men’s event Saturday.
In an art form redefining Olympic sport, it’s no surprise that breaking is built on a unique relationship that doesn’t exist in other events.
“A referee is very much supposed to stay out of it, a judge is staying out of it, they’re completely separate from the event itself,” Fleg said. “What I’m doing is not. I have direct involvement.”
A B-boy of 25 years who deejayed his first event in 2005, Fleg is fully aware of the power he wields playing music for the dancers. He earned his spot by overseeing several Olympic qualifiers, including the final competition in Budapest in June. After the event, Zack Slusser, the vice president of Breaking for Gold USA and USA Dance, heard from first-time breaking spectators that it was the first sporting event they had attended in which no one was on their phone. Everyone was entrenched in the atmosphere Fleg created in.
“A referee is very much supposed to stay out of it, a judge is staying out of it, they’re completely separate from the event itself,” Fleg said. “What I’m doing is not. I have direct involvement.”
(Alan Chi – WDSF)
“The DJ,” American B-boy Jeffrey “Jeffro” Louis said, “is everything.”
The best ones separate themselves by reading the room, understanding the dancers and then choosing the perfect songs that can take the room on an emotional journey, said B-girl Sunny Choi. There are aspects of a breaking battle that only some people experience, but everyone — judges, dancers and spectators — interacts with the music.
It should be funky, maintaining the essence of the art form that originated in the 1970s in the Bronx, while offering a mix of sounds. The drum break from which it derives its name name is key. The rhythm may be faster than some contemporary hip-hop, Fleg said, but some songs will be familiar to viewers tuning in to their first competition.
The International Olympic Committee licensed about 400 songs for the competition. They include vintage funk songs and 1990s and 2000s hip-hop. Some songs are brand new. Others will be comfortable classics for the breakers. Instead of the mechanical “pots and pans” sounds that DJs used for years to avoid copyright infringement issues during the early days of livestreamed events, viewers may recognize the sounds of James Brown, Busta Rhymes or A Tribe Called Quest.
But DJs don’t just pick good songs. Breakers have the opportunity to make songs stand out.
Jeffrey Louis works out with teammates during a breaking practice session at the Team USA training facility at the 2024 Summer Olympics July 30 in Eaubonne, France.
(David Goldman / Associated Press)
“Any song really has all these different notes, elements, instruments going on,” Slusser said. “The best dancers out there will highlight something that the audience probably isn’t hearing. … It’s totally interpretive and the best dancers are those that are able to capture those moments and also feed the audience exactly what that dancer is feeling.”
Dancers do not know which song they will get until it starts blaring over the speakers. Unlike gymnasts and figure skaters who practice their routines to set music for months before the Olympics, breakers have about five seconds to think of a plan before a round, Choi said.
Competitors are critiqued by a panel of nine judges who look for technique, vocabulary, originality, execution and musicality. The movements, from the high-flying power moves to intricate downrock movements on the floor, are a dancer’s vocabulary. They use them to write the sentences of each battle’s story.
The DJ, with his musical selection, chooses the plot.
“It’s a conversation between the breakers,” Slusser said. “But it’s a conversation contextualized by what the DJ does.”
Jeffro acknowledged DJs can control the result of a battle by giving a dancer a particularly difficult song. Fleg knows he can’t simply give his friends their favorite tracks. The IOC wanted to safeguard against potential bias by requiring DJs to present a set list of roughly three songs for each battle slot the day before the competition. They won’t know who will be dancing in each slot when they select the list. When the battle begins, DJs can choose only from their short list, selecting different sections, tinkering with transitions and looping in different effects.
American Sunny Choi, also known as B-Girl Sunny, competes in the B-girl Red Bull BC One World Final at Hammerstein Ballroom in 2022.
(Andres Kudacki / Associated Press)
With the discipline determined to maintain its roots while teetering between art and sport, the set list compromise is one of the few formatted elements that won’t be exactly authentic to the culture.
“We’ve taken so many cultural wins with this,” Fleg said. “Being big-picture, it’s just like, we get to play funk music, we get to play these classic breaks, we play new things, all these things are great representations of how breaking has been perceived. … I understand that we kind of have to put this aside to be able to make this come through at this level at the Olympics.”
Fleg says he has always been a fan of the Games and recalled attending the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Getting to elevate the art he’s cherished for decades onto this global stage is a coveted opportunity. While he stops short of calling breaking a sport, he feels that the top breakers are the same level of athletic and creative genius as the basketball player who turns off a screen to drain a long three-pointer.
In his role, he’s ready to spin the perfect assist.
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An Olympic medalist and 13-time X Games winner suffered serious head injuries after a stunt went wrong.
Nyjah Huston, who won bronze in Paris in 2024, said he suffered a fractured skull and eye socket.
“A harsh reminder how death-defying skating massive rails can be…” Huston wrote in an Instagram post which included a photo of himself in a hospital bed. “Taking it one day at a time. I hope yall had a better new years then me. We live to fight another day.”
Nyjah Huston of the United States competes in the men’s street prelims during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at La Concorde 3. (Jack Gruber/USA TODAY Sports)
The post also featured Huston being treated by first responders and friends, along with another photo showing a large black-and-blue mark on Huston’s eye.
Numerous skating legends showed their support for Huston, who is considered one of the best skateboarders in the United States today.
Nyjah Huston of Team USA reacts at the Skateboarding Men’s Street Prelims on day two of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Urban Sports Park on July 25, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
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“Been watching @nyjah grow up into one of the best skaters to ever do it and it amazes me the amount of grit this kid has,” Shaun White shared on his Instagram story, via Pro Football Network. “You got this brother. Heal quick!”
Even Tony Hawk shared well-wishes on Huston’s Instagram post.
“Heavy. Stay strong; we know you’ll be back,” the skateboarding legend wrote.
“Man.. prayers for healing brother!” added Ryan Sheckler.
It is unknown whether Huston was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident.
Nyjah Huston, of the United States, celebrates during the men’s skateboard street final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Huston has seven gold medals and five silvers in world championships. He has not competed since the 2024 Olympics, but the California native has his eyes set on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
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JuJu Watkins is returning to Sierra Canyon High on Friday, the place where she was a high school basketball All-American.
The school will hold a ceremony retiring her jersey at halftime of the boys’ basketball game between Sierra Canyon and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
She will be presented with a framed jersey.
Watkins is sitting out this season at USC while recovering from a knee injury.
Sierra Canyon girls’ basketball coach Alicia Komaki said, “She raised our standards, which was hard to do because we had won four state championships. She was an incredibly talented player.”
Watkins was also making a huge impact in the college game until her injury last season during the NCAA playoffs.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sports
Miami beats Ole Miss behind Carson Beck’s game-winning touchdown to reach CFP National Championship Game
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The Miami Hurricanes are heading to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, coming away with a narrow victory over Ole Miss, 31-27, in an all-time postseason contest.
The Hurricanes will now await the winner of the other semifinal between the Indiana Hoosiers and Oregon Ducks to see who they will play on Jan. 19. But Miami will do so on their home turf, with the National Championship Game being played at Hard Rock Stadium – the site of their home games.
The game began slowly for both teams, with only Miami getting on the scoreboard in the first quarter with a field goal on their 13-play opening drive. But the fireworks came out from there for the Rebels thanks to the speed of running back Kewan Lacy.
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Charmar Brown of the Miami (FL) Hurricanes celebrates a run in the first quarter of the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 8, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. (Steve Limentani/ISI Photos)
On just the second play of the second quarter, Lacy was off to the race, finding a seam and busting out a 73-yard touchdown run to go up 7-3 after the extra point.
But this game was back and forth for quite some time, including the ensuing Hurricanes drive as quarterback Carson Beck led the way on a 15-play touchdown series with a CharMar Brown rushing score from four yards out.
The game was deadlocked at 10 apiece when Beck decided to air it out to Keelan Marion, and it was worth the risk. Marion made the grab for a 52-yard touchdown to help Miami go up 17-13 at halftime.
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The third quarter was an odd one for both squads, as their opening drives resulted in a missed field goal apiece. Then, after Beck threw an interception, the Rebels were able to cut the lead to 17-16 in favor of the Hurricanes heading into the fourth quarter for the ages.
There was no absence of electric plays when it mattered most in the final 15 minutes, as Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss got his team downfield enough to take a 19-17 lead with a field goal.
But the speed of Malachi Toney changed the scoreboard for Miami in the best way possible, as he took a screen 36 yards to the house, capping a four-play, 75-yard answer drive for the Hurricanes right after Ole Miss took the lead.
Trinidad Chambliss of the Ole Miss Rebels celebrates a touchdown against the Miami Hurricanes in the second quarter during the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 8, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
With a 24-19 lead and five minutes left to play in the game, Chambliss and the Rebels’ offense had quite enough time to retake the lead. He did just that, finding trusty tight end Dae’Quan Wright for 24 yards to send the Rebels faithful ballistic.
Ole Miss wanted to go for two in hopes of making it a three-point lead, and Chambliss came through again, finding a wide open Caleb Odom for the key score.
It was up to Beck and the Miami offense to keep the game alive with at least tying the game at 27 apiece. On a crucial third-and-10 just inside field goal range, Beck was confident with his pass to Marion to get well within range. Another pass to Marion made it first-and-goal, and it was clear Miami wasn’t trying to force overtime. They wanted to win it all.
How fitting was it that Beck, scanning the field, found a seam to his left and just sprinted for the colored paint to score the game-winner with 18 seconds left.
But things got fascinating at the end, with Ole Miss going 40 yards in just a few seconds to set up a Hail Mary for the win. Chambliss had the space to loft a pass to the end zone, and though it hit off the hand of a teammate, it landed incomplete for the Miami victory.
Carson Beck of the Miami Hurricanes passes the ball against the Ole Miss Rebels in the first quarter during the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 8, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. (Chris Coduto/Getty Images)
In the box score, Beck was 23-of-37 for 268 yards with his two passing touchdowns and an interception. Marion was a key player in the victory with seven catches for 114 yards, while Mark Fletcher Jr. set the tone in the ground game with 133 yards rushing on 22 carries. Toney also tallied 81 receiving yards for Miami.
For Ole Miss, Chambliss also went 23-of-37 for 277 yards with his touchdown to Wright, who finished with 64 yards on three grabs. De’Zhaun Stribling was five for 77 through the air, while Lacy rushed for 103 yards on 11 carries.
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