Victor Montalvo, also known as B-boy Victor, has a wealth of titles to his name. Recently, the 30-year-old Floridian bagged his biggest win yet: a bronze medal in Paris 2024 Olympic Men’s Breaking representing Team USA.
Victor’s team invited me to meet him after this momentous achievement, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask him about the Olympics, his personal breaking style, and what’s next on his agenda.
Inside Look at the Olympic Experience
On his way to bronze, Victor fought to the top of Group A in the round robin stage, then beat out Kazakhstan’s Amir in the quarterfinals, lost to French favorite Dany Dann in the semifinals, and finally triumphed over Japan’s Shigekix in the third place battle.
While supporters in the stands may have been on pins and needles during that last battle, Victor was owning it: “I was feeling great, I was on that stage like ‘this floor is mine.’ I gave it my all, and you can see it in my face, you can see it in my dance. This is my one and only chance to redeem myself.”
Interestingly, Victor’s favorite battle wasn’t the one that won him an Olympic medal. It was his quarterfinal bout with Amir where he felt he gave his best. In round one, reversing out of a power combo to nail a freeze sequence, then throwing a passionate fist skyward was all the evidence we needed. As a breaker, sharing your new creations and executing them to perfection is one of the greatest rewards for the hard work it takes to get there.
Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that Victor brought his phone on stage with him. That’s where he keeps his list of moves, and although he didn’t get to show them all, he was glad to create spontaneous moments. In addition to having pockets for phones, a breaker’s pants must be both stylish and functional for movement. Victor says he loved his choice for the Olympics, a pair of white lightweight nylon trousers from Korean fashion brand CARNET-ARCHIVE.
The “Victor Style” and What Breaking is All About
Although soft-spoken, Victor expresses himself with intensity and clarity through his dance. He describes his approach as focusing on the form and the details: “where your hands are placed, because for me, that’s super important. You can’t be dragging your feet while you’re breaking, looking all sloppy.” Even with this emphasis on the small things, Victor’s repertoire has an abundance of crowd pleasers, which have personalized names like “swirl,” “compass,” or “Super Montalvo.”
No matter where he competes, the seasoned breaker is always seeking “those small moments where you just blank out and you don’t remember what you did, but you get up and you see the crowd going crazy…And those moments to me are the most exciting. It’s like you had a plan, but then that plan just goes out the window and you just reach a level where you just your body takes over. The music takes over.”
Victor has words of advice for up-and-coming breakers who share the search for those moments of pure expression and gratification. In his words, “Every move you do, do it with conviction. Believe in your moves. Believe in yourself. Because then that projects to the crowd, you know…Enjoy the moment.”
Understanding the foundation of the dance and the culture is another key to success. “You understand the foundation, from there you can take it anywhere. It’s like learning the rules to then break the rules.” According to Victor, a few references to start with are K-Mel, Flea Rock, Rock Steady Crew, and Roxrite.
What’s Next for the Bronze Medal Winner
So after returning home with an Olympic medal, what’s Victor’s next move? For starters, he’s looking forward to enjoying breaking again–”doing it for the love,” as he puts it, to get back in touch with why he started dancing in the first place. Other items on the list include training Muay Thai in Thailand and perhaps enrolling in pilot school. Whatever he sets his mind to, Victor is sure to bring his tenacity and eye for detail to that new endeavor.
B-boy Victor poses for a photo on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, NY. (Photo by Kien Quan)
Red Bull Content Pool
While breaking will unfortunately not be part of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, there are plenty of options for those who want to experience breaking live and direct. For instance, the Red Bull BC One National USA Cypher will take place in Los Angeles’ Venice Beach on September 28. Other events, even at the local level, are often promoted on Facebook, Instagram, and so on.
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