Sunny Choi, Team USA Olympic Breakdancer, on Defining Happiness for Yourself

The Seventies and Eighties babies in the room are likely among the most delighted to see breakdancing—known in its circles as “breaking”—debut as an Olympic sport the very same year hip-hop celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Sunny Choi is a star on Team USA’s inaugural breaking roster, but her athletic career started off as a gymnast until an injury forced her to leave the sport. Choi went on to study at the University of Pennsylvania, which led to a career in book publishing and then as a global director at a legacy cosmetics company.

But, as she told us, she was yearning for something else. Here, in partnership with the Incredible Egg in a campaign entitled “Meant To Be Broken,” Choi—also a self-proclaimed foodie—shares why “breaking” eventually became no longer a choice.

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The Healthy: Sunny, you’re making history! What do you hear fans and supporters saying about this first-ever event at the Olympics?

Sunny Choi: I think, in general, people are really excited about it. It’s the first time hip-hop has been represented like this on the Olympic stage, and it’s special to have a diverse group of people represent it. While I know there are plenty of haters out there, I feel like the fans are overwhelmingly supportive, and people are just really, really excited about it. I know some of the older generation wishes breaking would have been around during their time, but they’re glad it’s here now.

The Healthy: As if breaking isn’t unique enough, you have an inspiring story for anyone who’s dealing with pressure and doubt in their careers. You went from competitive gymnastics to graduating from Penn and then working in corporate America. Can you talk about the decision to pursue your Olympic dreams?

Sunny Choi: “Meant to be Broken” helps to illustrate the way that I looked at things when I was making the decision to leave corporate America and pursue my dream. My entire life, I had lived in a box, done everything I was supposed to do and checked off all the boxes to be outwardly successful. I went to a good school, was a good athlete, started working in corporate America and was on my way to buying a house and having a family.

But at the end of the day, I wasn’t happy, so this was about breaking out of the mold and breaking everyone’s expectations of me and myself to pursue a path that would fulfill me and make me happy. When the Olympics were announced, I realized that no one was telling me I needed to do this, so I needed to get out of my head and make some changes to fulfill this childhood dream.  I did some internal work, and then, ever since making the decision, I haven’t looked back.

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The Healthy: Breaking definitely takes athleticism. How do you train—and how do you protect yourself from injury?

Sunny Choi: Breakers today are just like many other high-level athletes. Some very specific things about what we do make breaking unique and challenging. For example, because there’s such a big creative component to breaking, we must mentally be “on” the day of the battle. It’s not just about taking care of ourselves physically, but also mentally. I think there’s been more awareness about mental health and talking about it for high-level athletes.

It’s not just about showing up and doing the same thing we’ve practiced over and over and over again because I’m freestyling, and we don’t know what songs are going to play, so we have to be present and locked in with our bodies and be willing to let go of control. So, because of that, I think it’s even more important than in some other sports to take care of ourselves as the whole mind, body and soul.  I’m taking care of my mind by going to therapy and doing things that make me happy throughout the day, whether cooking myself a meal, going on long walks with my dog without my phone, or going to hot vinyasa. Then, the physical piece is training, where I see a strength and conditioning coach. I also do a lot of recovery work, which includes compression boots, and if I have access, I’ll do an ice bath.

There’s also the soul piece: Connecting with people, enjoying what you’re doing and taking care of everything. The way I see it, training is so much more than what we’re doing physically.

The Healthy: We understand that you’re a big fan of eggs, like us and our readers. Talk to us about your eating habits and how you nourish your body to compete.

Sunny Choi: When competing, I’m quite picky about the foods I eat because I have to choose foods that work well with my stomach and fuel me. I’m mostly focused on protein as a macro. I am careful about getting a wide variety of foods, so throughout the day, I ensure I include some vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats to balance. However, the only thing I am really tracking is protein.

Eggs play a huge part in helping me to get to my protein goals. I eat many eggs because they are a super easy and quick way to include protein and nutrition in my meals. I often fry or scramble eggs to put them on my dinner meal. Eggs are my go-to for breakfast. Honestly, sometimes I wish I could have eggs for all three meals of the day, but that doesn’t really help me in terms of balance and getting a variety of foods. I like to fry eggs in sesame oil, and that’s a go-to when I’m lazy.

Having a sweet treat, I think, is also part of the balance. I have a humongous sweet tooth so I like to make and keep a batch of my custard freeze around—because sometimes you just need something sweet at the end of the day.

Courtesy The Incredible Egg

The Healthy: We ask this in all of our interviews: Is there a self-care habit you refuse to skip?

Sunny Choi: I can’t say “refuse” because, to be honest, I’m often breaking my own rules. But generally, an important one for me is when I go on walks with my dog, I either don’t take my phone or pull my phone out of my pocket unless, for some reason, I need to check the time or something. This enables me to get away from everything for a little bit. I feel like we’re inundated all day, every day, and that’s the time I take and set aside for myself each day.

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