B-boy Holy Rain (CHN) goes airborne at the 2025 WDSF Breaking Youth World Champions in Porto.
Haruka Ambai (IG: haru_graphics)
Hot on the heels of The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, the WDSF Breaking Youth World Championship took place on August 28 in Porto. Out of hundreds of talented young men and women, China’s B-girl Royal and B-boy Holy Rain emerged victorious.
This year’s event in Porto is a key milestone, not only because it is one of the largest world stages for youth breaking, but because it is one of the WDSF events that officials will be watching to qualify participants for the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026. To be considered for YOG participation, a breaker must participate in at least one WDSF-sanctioned event.
Competition aside, the Breaking Youth World Championship is a window to the future of breaking because it gives young up-and-comers a platform to shine. From the WDSF’s official announcement, the event’s goal is to deliver “an inspiring celebration of talent, unity, and the future of the global Breaking movement.”
In the central square of Matosinhos, a coastal city in Porto district, 192 b-boys and 101 b-girls registered to compete. With preselections beginning at 10:00 local time and the event ending at 21:30, the last few standing literally danced the whole day.
In the Youth Men’s event, China swept the podium, with Holy Rain (Cui Shengyu), TJR (Tong Jierong), and Purple One (Huang Ziyi) taking first, second, and third, respectively.
Holy Rain has been making noise not only in the competitive breaking circuit, but also in all styles dance battles. For example, he won the Radikal Forze Jam invitational kids’ 7-to-smoke back to back in 2024 and 2025. His ability to unify his great musical improvisation with power move mastery makes him one to watch, and he’s a herald of the new generation that is set to take the breaking world by storm.
In Youth Women’s, Royal (Guo Pu, CHN) won gold, C-change (Hu Xichen, CHN) took silver, and Hiyo (Yamada Hiyo, JPN) finished with the bronze.
Royal should be a familiar name at this point, as she also won gold at The World Games 2025, which is even more impressive given that she competed against adults as a 16-year-old. Similar to Holy Rain, Royal’s technique and execution are spotless. Although, her style leans less towards musicality, and more towards a consistently aesthetic form, even through the end of longer rounds. In other words, if you choose a random moment in one of Royal’s rounds to take a snapshot, it would probably be a good picture.
With a year or so remaining until the Breaking event at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, these young dancers will have plenty of time in the lab, in the gym, and with their coaches to take it to the next level come November 2026. Based on the display in Porto, it will be worth looking out for.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonpu/2025/08/29/youth-breaking-medalists-crowned-at-wdsf-world-championship-in-porto/
