Breakdancing Olympic hopefuls make their debut at Montreal's Jackalope festival
CBC
When Samuel Cyr took up breakdancing 15 years ago, he never thought he'd be training to represent Canada in the sport at the Olympics.
"I was very, very bad at the beginning," laughed Cyr, now a breaker on the small Canadian national team headed by the non-profit Breaking Canada.
Now, with breakdancing making its debut at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, Montrealers like Cyr and other Olympic hopefuls are showcasing their talent at Montreal's Olympic Park, where one of Canada's biggest action sports festivals is taking place this weekend.
Montreal's Jackalope festival is back after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Running Aug. 19 to 21, some 500 extreme sports athletes from 20 countries will be participating in a variety of sports, including skateboarding, base jumping, bouldering, BMX, and for the first time ever: breakdancing.
"For me, the more people that are going to see it, the more people are going to start doing it and the more people are going to have fun with it," Cyr said.
"It's cool that the public is interested in it."
It's a feeling Alannah Yip can relate to. The 28-year-old sport climber made history at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as the first Canadian woman to compete in the sport's Olympic debut.
"It was amazing, it was so exciting. I was so honoured to be a part of the first inclusion of climbing in the games," she said.
She's now hoping to qualify for the 2024 Olympics again and be able to participate again — this time, without pandemic restrictions.
Jackalope's executive producer Micah Desforges says there's a lot of hype this year around the new sports recently added to the Olympics.
"We got kids from the U.S. and from Brazil, from the rest of Canada coming to compete and try to build a name for themselves," he said, adding the energy at this year's festival is unparalleled to years prior.
"It's our 10th anniversary this weekend, and ... the people are going crazy."
Despite the festival drawing some of the country's best athletes, Desforges touts the event as a fun, welcoming space for people of all levels of expertise.
"There's a bunch of folks that just register for the experience of being, you know, on course with some of the best athletes out there," he said.
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.