Within the early ’90s, Victor Montalvo’s dad and mom determined to leave Mexico and trekked throughout the Chihuahuan Desert for a greater life.
“They mainly needed to undergo the desert after which get into some random dude’s automobile in Texas. And from there, they drove all the way down to Florida,” Montalvo informed Fox Information Digital about his dad and mom’ journey to the U.S. “My dad informed me that he already had a brother that was in Florida. And so they’re like, ‘Hey, you guys ought to come right here. It is a greater life.’”
It was an existential choice that led to Montalvo successful bronze for the U.S. on the Paris Olympics in breakdancing, which was probably the one time the game will ever be featured within the Olympics.
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Bronze medalist Victor Montalvo of Group USA stands on the rostrum throughout the Breaking B-Boys medal ceremony on the Olympic Video games in Paris on Aug. 10, 2024. (Steph Chambers/Getty Photos)
For Montalvo, representing the U.S. was a simple choice impressed by the one his dad and mom made many many years in the past.
Montalvo mentioned his dad and mom first labored on a farm in Florida choosing oranges and strawberries for lengthy hours, earlier than his father later bought a job at Rainforest Café in Disneyland. Montalvo is the center of three kids for whom his dad and mom had to supply. However that didn’t cease them from introducing Victor to breakdancing at simply 6 years outdated once they got here to the nation the place the game originated.
“I may have represented Mexico, however truthfully, it simply seems like I am taking somebody’s spot, ? And I wasn’t born in Mexico, my household was born in Mexico, I used to be born within the U.S. So, for me, it was finest to only characterize the place I used to be born and the place I am from,” Montalvo mentioned.
However simply as that future started when his dad and mom hopped into the again seat of a automobile to Florida, it was practically all undone whereas Montalvo was within the again seat of a automobile driving via Los Angeles on his birthday on Might 1, simply three months earlier than Paris.
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He was within the again seat of a automobile being pushed by his pal, whereas his pal’s girlfriend sat within the passenger seat. All of them practically misplaced their lives when one other automobile drove via a crimson mild and smashed into Montalvo and his two associates.
Montalvo mentioned he wasn’t carrying a seat belt.
Victor Montalvo performs within the males’s breakdance remaining on the World City Video games in Budapest, Hungary, on Sept. 14, 2019. (ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP through Getty Photos)
“I had extreme whiplash, and I didn’t know if I used to be going to have the ability to compete. I assumed my neck was damaged,” Montalvo mentioned. “My pal had a small shoulder damage, I had loopy extreme whiplash, I couldn’t transfer my neck. I assumed it was damaged for like a month.”
Montalvo needed to undergo a month of bodily remedy, interrupting his regular coaching, to regain full management of his neck. Whereas he wasn’t initially certain if he would be capable to come again from it, he returned to type.
Then, simply as he completed bodily remedy for the accident, he suffered a shoulder damage throughout coaching. He needed to heal that lower than two months till Paris.
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“Man, why is these things taking place proper earlier than the Olympics, proper earlier than my occasion?” he mentioned to himself throughout that point.
However he persevered via the bodily remedy for his shoulder, and he made it again to the ground for an opportunity at a historic medal.
And at age 30, the breaking veteran earned his Olympic {hardware} when he defeated Japan’s Shigeyuki Nakarai within the bronze medal match, 3-0, on the second-to-last day of the Paris Olympics.
Victor Montalvo, aka B-Boy Victor, of Group USA embraces Hiroto Ono, aka B-Boy Hiro10, of Group Japan throughout the Breaking B-Boys Spherical Robin Group A battle on the Olympic Video games in Paris on Aug. 10, 2024. (Elsa/Getty Photos)
He returned dwelling this week to a hero’s welcome and stored the medal shut, in his pocket, as he did a sequence of media interviews on Wednesday. He retains it shut, figuring out it may probably be the one Olympic medal America ever wins in his sport.
Who is aware of what the medal could sometime be value if there’s by no means breakdancing in the Olympics once more?
However Montalvo, at age 30, is aware of that Paris could have been his solely likelihood to compete within the Olympics as a “breaker.” He is aware of the game gained’t be coming again within the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, even supposing his sport originated within the U.S. However its future as an Olympic sport on the 2032 Video games in Brisbane, Australia, and past is unclear.
“We don’t actually know if breaking is ever going to be within the Olympics once more,” he mentioned. “For me to have a medal and be like, I made historical past, I made historical past for the breaking tradition, so it actually means loads to me that I’m the first-ever American breaking medalist.”
Victor Montalvo, referred to as B-Boy Victor, of Group USA competes on the Olympic Video games in Paris on Aug. 10, 2024. (Shen Bohan/Xinhua through Getty Photos)
The breaking event obtained blended opinions from Olympic viewers on-line. Criticism was harshly drawn to Australian athlete Raygun, who obtained zero factors within the competitors and went viral for questionable strikes.
However for Montalvo, Raygun’s viral routine has really been affluent for his private model, and he thinks it has even grown the game as a complete.
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“I went to the feedback on my battles and folks beneath are like, ‘Wow! I got here to observe breaking due to Raygun, and now I am so invested into it. That is really superior, ?’” Montalvo mentioned. “So, it is like we have been getting quite a lot of detrimental opinions, however now there’s lots of people tuning into the occasion, watching the occasion after which really having fun with it.
“They went to see if breaking was that dangerous, they usually simply tuned in.”
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