Olympic breaker Sunny Choi on her signature move, Roblox, and breaking full-time
Less than two years ago, Sunny Choi was living a double life working in corporate America by day and breaking by night. Then breaking was announced as an official Olympic sport, and Choi knew it was now or never. As a child, she had dreamed of attending the Olympics as a gymnast. Now, at 35, she is attending the IRL Games as a member of Team USA’s first ever breaking team — and wandering around the metaverse as a digital avatar in a new Olympics-themed Roblox game.
Mashable caught up with Sunny for a quick chat less than a week before she headed off to Paris.
Hi Sunny! You’re part of a new Olympics-themed Roblox game. Have you played Roblox before?
I knew of Roblox because my nieces play, but I had never played. My sister-in-law, actually, was saying that my nieces will probably be more excited about me being in Roblox than my being in the Olympics.
You’ve just given your nieces priceless bragging rights at school.
That’s basically what my sister-in-law said. “They’re gonna be so excited when they find out!” To be honest, I haven’t been able to play in the experience myself because I’ve been a little busy [laughs] but I would love to, because I did get to see the two emotes [a Roblox avatar animation] of my breaking moves and they’re so cute. With one of them, especially, you can definitely tell it’s me if you know what my movements are.
How would you describe the move depicted in that emote?
It’s like a signature move, I don’t know that anyone else does anything quite like it. Some of my signature moves have names — like I have one that I call “wizardry” — but this one doesn’t. It’s just a long string of movements [and actually] that’s the name, just because it helps me to remember it.
There’s this segment where I do a kind of one-handed back walkover, like a gymnast, but it goes around in a circle. It reminds me of a gymnastics move called the Valdez, so I call it a “Valdez-step-on-hand,” because I literally land stepping on my hand, and then I grab my foot and I throw my foot up in the air.
Isn’t the gaming term “noob” also used in the breaking community?
Yes, and it means the same thing: to be a beginner. I started breaking with people who were in the engineering school at Penn, so it may be that they use that word more than the rest of the breaking community, because I don’t hear it often.
You were director of global creative operations for skincare at Estée Lauder before quitting to pursue breaking full-time in January 2023. What was that time like for you?
That life was actually really, really challenging, and I was lucky to be able to make that decision to jump into my passion and quit the corporate job. Had I not, I either would have had to find a job where I was able to work less, or I would have needed to dial back on the breaking because it was getting to a point where it was unsustainable. I was getting up at six in the morning, going to the gym and then working a New York City corporate day — which is not just a nine-to-five, by the way — and then logging off, changing, going to practice, answering emails and Slack while I was at practice, coming home, finishing the job, going to bed, getting six hours of sleep if I was lucky, and then doing it all over again. So it was definitely really, really tough.
I don’t recommend trying to work full-time and pursuing another passion to that level. It is possible, I think, to go ahead and work a full-time job, and then also be passionate about something. But I think pursuing it at an Olympic level is definitely going to be challenging. You don’t have any sense of balance. You have no time for anything else, including yourself. You don’t have any downtime. And any time I did have downtime, I was so exhausted that I didn’t get to really enjoy it.
Will you attend other sporting events at the Olympics?
We can apply to get tickets to watch other events, but I probably won’t know what my schedule looks like until I’m there. And I’m assuming I’m not going to be the only athlete that wants to watch other events [laughs]. I don’t know how that process goes, but I do think that they encourage athletes to go watch other sports.
There’s a few sports where I’ve actually met the athletes. I’ve never been into water polo, but just meeting [Team USA water polo player] Ashleigh Johnson, she’s really cool, so I’d like to watch her. Rugby Sevens looks really cool, I’d love to watch the women’s team. I’m all about women’s sports, so we’re just talking women here by the way. Gymnastics, of course, is on there. I’ve always loved diving, so maybe diving would make it on there. Those on the top of my list.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.