This Friday in Seoul, the Break Dance World Cup began, a discipline that will debut at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Spain attended with five dancers (Ana Furia, Johnny Fox, Grazy, Xak and Law) and the championship began with an earthquake . The national coach (technical director in the official organization chart) that the Federation signed in 2019, Fernando Amador, known as Flex Nando, has been forced to resign after a video was published in which he is seen grabbing his neck and giving him a slap to Sergio, a 19-year-old b-boy (that’s how break dancers are known). The events occurred in a “non-federative meeting” -as Luis Vañó, president of the Sports Dance Federation to which breakdance is attached-, held on Saturday in Petrer (Alicante) and recorded, according to friends of Sergio, by some parents of the students who concentrated in the gym.
Flex Nando, 35, got on the plane to Seoul with the rest of the team that took off from Madrid on Monday. He did it despite having told Vañó the night before what had happened on Saturday. Once in Korea, and after the planting of Law (Laura García) and the statements of Xak (Juan de la Torre), the two heavyweights of the national team, Flex Nando sent a letter to the president saying that he was resigning from the position. This is how Law expressed himself: “I deeply condemn any act of violence, whether verbal or physical. This has caught me in the middle of our trip to Korea and it is not being easy to make a decision, but I will not compete in Korea or in any other event of the FEBD while Flex Nando continues as technical director of breaking”, announced the Granada, Spanish champion in 2019 and 2021. Xak also pronounced, fourth in the United States World Games held in July and fifth in the last World Cup. “It goes without saying that the values I represent do not include violence in any of its forms. And I am very sorry for the damage suffered by those affected, ”she wrote on the networks.
According to what Vañó told this newspaper, Flex Nando’s resignation and Law’s statement – which he describes as “more or less fortunate writing” – are independent. The technical director, says Vañó, called him on Sunday night. “I messed up,” he announced. Did he tell you that he grabbed a dancer by the neck and slapped him? “He told me that he had screwed up, that he was very sorry. I think they are the classic five seconds of error that we can all have and we all have the right to make mistakes”. The Federation published on Monday morning, with the team about to take off, a statement in which he remarks that what happened was in an event outside the FEDB. “Despite this, we reject and condemn Flex Nando’s attitude. All the necessary explanations were asked of him and he showed his most sincere regret”. They also wrote that they continued to trust in his “professionalism” to continue leading the FEBD. “We have told you that these types of events -or similar ones- have no place in our sport, nor can they and should not happen again, since, otherwise, the FEBD will adopt other types of measures”.
Why is he allowed to travel despite having assaulted a student? Vañó answers: “We have had to make decisions on the fly, at the time of the first statement we did not see the video that began to circulate the next day.” And once seen the video? “If you see it, it’s very playable.” In the video you do see the grab and the slap. Vañó says that “as soon as the video comes out” she receives a call from Flex Nando. “On his own initiative he himself decides to present his resignation, so as not to harm the Federation or the team, and less so with the World Cup about to start. I want to stress that he was very remorseful from the beginning”. Wednesday the 19th is when the second statement announcing the resignation is published.
Asked if he has spoken to Sergio’s family – who has filed a complaint with the Police – Vañó says no, that it was a non-federative event. This newspaper has tried to contact Sergio but has declined to make a statement: “the issue is in judicial hands.”
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