Parkour now. Competitions, participants, winners. Video

“Parkour, parkour is the new movement…” – Many people inertly think of the continuation of this line from a once popular song. Only 10 years ago parkour was mentioned in music, and tracers were invited to shoot commercials for famous brands. You could just go out on the street and see how the boys in the yard, inspired by the tricks of professionals, tried to repeat even a small part of what they saw. Do you think that all this is a thing of the past? Not at all.

Nowadays parkour is a way of life for many people and is actively developing thanks to numerous associations and competitions in different countries. The most significant of modern parkour and freerunning competitions – Red Bull Art of Motion – is still held today. Every year the best athletes from all over the world meet at special venues to show fearlessness and the maximum of their abilities.

This year’s competition took place on October 5 in the ancient Italian city of Matera. The event traditionally impressed the public with the scope, style and technicality of the athletes. We offer to remember together how the large-scale parkour movement began. We tell you about the history of the competition, mesmerizing locations and the strongest participants.

The first major parkour competition. Vienna, 2007.

The history of parkour competitions dates back to October 6, 2007. Then an artificial platform was built in the very center of the Austrian capital for the large-scale event. With the onset of darkness bright spotlights were lit, the host welcomed the guests, and the first participant came out. Athletes performed tricks on a structure that looked like a ladder made of three huge cubes, tourniquets, soft structures, cars and walls.

The first ever winner of the Red Bull Art of Motion was British tracer Ryan Doyle. The athlete’s triumph did not end at the 2007 competition: he took gold for the second time in August 2011 and bronze at the March competition of the same year.

After the debut event, the organizers took a break. The next time parkour returned to Vienna two years later, in 2009, after which the event became a regular event.

The world’s best parkour spots

There is a great variety of parkour spots all over the world, so the organizers did not stop at one country and changed the location several times. Throughout the history of the competition, athletes have visited sites in Helsingborg (Sweden), Tampa, Boston and Detroit (USA), London (UK), Yokohama (Japan), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Lavertezzo (Switzerland). But the “mecca” of parkour is definitely the Greek island of Santorini. It was there that the strongest freerunners fought annually for seven years – from 2011 to 2017.

Santorini’s terrain is recognized as one of the best for parkour for a reason. Its uniqueness lies in the natural relief, which occupies 95% of the total area. Only the remaining 5% are artificial structures. The new location in Matera was chosen according to the same principle: a significant part of the city in Italy is carved into the rock.

The strongest traceurs

It is useless to argue in which country parkour representatives are the most technical. Even asking leading Russian athletes which country’s parkour they like the most, you can hear completely different answers.

Japan has a large community and a good level of parkour. They are the best at freerun jumping and show themselves in tricking. Japanese athletes are very versatile. When I was there, they surprised me,” said Zhenya Aroyan, a participant of Red Bull Art of Motion 2019.

The representative of women’s parkour Sasha Shevchenko holds a different opinion:

There are many strong and talented athletes in different countries: all have their pros and cons. Personally, I like it when combinations are perfectly connected with the maximum level of flow, without a single extra step, and performed cleanly, as far as possible. In my opinion, so far only two people in the world are close to this ideal: Didi from Morocco and our Zhenya Aroyan. But they can do better.

Having studied the results of the competitions, we still managed to single out three athletes who impressed us. Their names in the list of winners and prize-winners flashed the most times.

Pavel Petkuns

Now the athlete from Latvia can be called an absolute record-breaker. He was among the top three freerunners seven times: he became the champion three times (in three competitions in a row), silver medalist three times and bronze medalist once. In addition, Paul won the award for the best trick in May 2010 and September 2012.

Jason Pohl

German tracer is not inferior to Petkuns in the table of prizes. Jason also has three gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal in his collection. However, he won the Best Stunt category only once – in September 2010.

Dimitris Kirsanidis

The representative of Greece is slightly behind his colleagues, being the owner of only four awards. Dimitris won the competition in 2014 and 2015, and also took bronze in 2017 and 2019.

Does women’s parkour exist?

Unequivocally, yes. And the big breakthrough for world parkour was the first women’s scoring, which was held in 2012 in Switzerland. Until that moment, girls could not take part in key competitions. The first winner was American Lucy Romberg – later she showed the best result at two more competitions.

The second place in the international parkour ranking is occupied by Russian athlete Sasha Shevchenko. She boasts two gold and two silver medals in her personal collection.

Parkour is a movement that gained mass popularity in the past decade. And even though many people think that the fashion for it has now disappeared, the professional community of freerunners will clearly prove the opposite.