Team GB and Toyota have joined forces to launch a new four-part docuseries, The Journey, bringing fans inside the lives of four athletes on their journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Toyota is the Worldwide Official Mobility Partner of the International Olympic Committee and the series reflects the company’s mission to support athletes to achieve their goals, going beyond the finishing line and beyond their impossible.
The series features cyclist Dame Laura Kenny, the most successful female Olympian in British history; double Commonwealth gold medal-winning diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix; reigning Commonwealth and former World Champion gymnast Giarnni Regini-Moran; and Roxanne Milliner, aka B-Girl Roxy, who is aiming to become the first Team GB female ‘breaker*’ when the sport makes its Olympic debut at Paris 2024.
The first episode, launched today on YouTube, features Milliner’s story. Born and raised in Streatham, south London, Milliner discovered her love of breaking as a teenager. She commented: “As a kid, I was very competitive. I started out with trampolining and used to compete for Great Britain. There are a lot of gymnasts who go into breaking because of the similarities in a lot of the movement, so, I got really good, really quickly.”
Her path has been far from smooth. When she was 15 she broke a bone in her back and didn’t know if she’d be able to walk again. She said: “Looking back, I realise that breaking was my way of expressing myself and dealing with the pain. It was horrible, but I think that’s where the best breakers come from. When I’m feeling happy, I dance differently to when I’m heartbroken. I think when I’m heartbroken, I break the best.”
Milliner experienced a further setback when she tore her pelvic floor muscle while pregnant with her son Leo in 2020 and was in a wheelchair for most of her pregnancy. She comments: “I was in the most pain I’ve ever known. But after Leo was born, I thought I can still do this, come on let’s go. Going to the Olympics would be the best opportunity ever.”
Episode one of The Journey is live on Team GB’s YouTube and can be viewed here:
The three other episodes will be released over the next few weeks.
*Breaking is a dance sport that blends urban dance with athleticism and will feature at the Olympics for the first time at Paris 2024. The sport emerged from hip hop culture in the Bronx in the 1970s, and follows closely behind new Olympic sports skateboarding, surfing and BMX, which debuted at Tokyo 2020.