Dominika Baniewicz won the World Breaking Championship!

On Saturday evening, the Lithuanian national anthem was played in the main square of the Belgian city of Leuven, raising the country’s tricolour flag high. Sixteen-year-old Polish teenager from Lithuania Dominika Baniewicz – known as Bgirl Nicka – triumphed and won the World Breaking Championships held here. She made her fans happy not only with the world championship gold, but also with a direct ticket to next year’s Olympic Games in Paris!

“I just won a ticket to the Olympics and I’m incredibly happy!” – said Dominika Baniewicz immediately after the award ceremony. “After the European Games held in Poland at the beginning of the summer, in which I failed to win, I promised myself that I would win a direct ticket to the World Championships. And that could only happen if I won. And I did it! I still can’t believe it myself! I succeeded because I trained hard; but I think I succeeded because I really wanted to give my country – Lithuania – a ticket to the Olympic Games. I promised everyone… I am happy, grateful and proud of myself!” – the young breakdancing champion said with emotion.

After the European Games, which she considered one of the easier ways to get a direct ticket, Bgirl Nicka stated that there seemed to be no easy ways for her: “I’m going to win this ticket the hard way – at the World Championships”.

During the two-day competition in Belgium, D. Baniewicz – Bgirl Nicka was extremely focused, outwardly calm, danced technically and steadily.

The judges who watched her performances said that at this World Championships Nicka presented a highly technical, classic style of breakdance as usual, but once again improved and raised the level of originality of the dance and musicality of the performance, so she practically had no weaknesses and was out of the competition.

In the final of the World Championships, 16-year-old Nicka defeated break legend from Japan 2:1 (4-5, 6-3, 6-3) Ayumi Fukushima – Bgirl Ayumi, who recently celebrated her 41st birthday and is the 2021 world champion.

A total of 96 participants – the best dancers in their respective countries – competed in the girls’ group at the World Breaking Championship.

Last year’s world champion Ami Yuasa of Japan – Bgirl Ami and runner-up Liu Qingyi of China – Bgirl 671 – fell behind Nicka. Meanwhile, Dominika Baniewicz added the title of world champion to the European gold won in the spring of 2023.

Prime Minister I. Šimonytė congratulates Dominika Baniewicz

Dominika was also greeted by the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Ingrida Šimonytė. The Prime Minister expressed her sincere congratulations and pride on this historic sporting victory, which opened the door to the Olympic Games. She wished Dominika Baniewicz further gold and noble victories and that the star of success would accompany her all the way through her sporting career.

“Dear Dominika, we are very happy about this important and historic sports victory, which opens the door to the Olympic Games. This is a real triumph of youth, creativity, powerful physical training and acrobatics, which will be admired by breakdance fans both in Lithuania and around the world for a long time. Thank you for promoting the name of our country, I sincerely wish you gold and other noble victories and may the star of success accompany you all the way”, said the Head of the Government Ingrida Šimonytė.