Should Parkour Be in the Olympics? Absolutely. (Part 1 of 2)

by Adam Dunlap on Aug.09, 2012, under Adam Dunlap, Articles, David Belle

According to David Belle, Parkour would be great in the Olympics.

Recently Take Flight posted the question on their Facebook, “Should Parkour be in the Olympics?” Knowing they were going to post this question, I was approached and agreed to write a blog post responding to it if the post got more than 200 comments. It got 300+, so here I am.

Because I thought the post would indeed get 200+ comments I was preparing my ideas beforehand. But then after it did get 200+ comments, I got a brilliant idea: let’s skip my opinion and just ask David [Belle] about it. As fate would have it I was on my way to see him, so yesterday I asked him. Here is how the conversation went. This is not an exact transcript of our conversation, but it’s pretty close:

Adam: David, I have kind of a weird question for you. Do you think Parkour should be in the Olympics?
David: Oh yeah, that would be great! I mean if BMX is in the Olympics then Parkour should be too.
Adam: Umm, I don’t think BMX is in the Olympics.
David: Really? I think it is.
Adam: Do you mean like BMX with the bike?
David: Yeah, BMX [and then he demonstrates turning the handle bars].
Adam: Umm, I don’t think it is.
David: Well either way it would still be great if Parkour was in the Olympics.

So there you go – short and sweet with a little bit of humor too. According to the founder, Parkour would be great in the Olympics.

Now if you’re confused at all by David’s answer I’ll explain a couple things:

#1. What is Parkour
Contrary to still commonly used although inaccurate definitions, Parkour, by definition, is a training method founded by David Belle that is most commonly characterized by overcoming obstacles in the natural and urban environments. It is also a non-competitive discipline meaning that practitioners do not compete against each other in the traditional competition sense of having an objective such that the first person to the finish line or the person/team with the most points at the end wins etc. David has said many times that in Parkour you compete against yourself. It’s you and the obstacle. This is not in debate in any Parkour circles that I know of.

#2. Parkour in Competition Mode
Contrary to misunderstood or misapplied Parkour philosophies, Parkour can easily be put into a competition mode and this is not contrary to the training method itself or the philosophy of Parkour as long as the competition was shown as something qualitatively different from the training method itself, and as long as the competition model stayed true to the ideas of the discipline. Doing this would mean that the competition would have to basically be an obstacle course that is done for time. Fastest time wins. True Parkour prevails.

(to be continued… To read part 2 click here)

____________________

Adam Dunlap is the founder of Take Flight. In addition to his ongoing role at the company, Adam is currently working closely with David Belle in films and on other projects in order to advance Parkour in the US and around the globe. Previous projects of Adam’s include starting the Revolution Parkour gym in Portland, Oregon, and running various Parkour blogs. Adam is an avid Traceur and can often be found training both outside and at Parkour classes in whatever city he finds himself. Adam currently takes no salary from his work with Take Flight.

22 Comments for this entry

David
August 9th, 2012 on 6:04 pm
No. Parkour as a civilian sport/art/discipline has always existed with an inherent dismissive attitude towards competition. After all; how do you judge a sport that is so difficult to define, not to mention one that is performed almost completely differently from one person to the next? If we make parkour competitive, we betray its core values of self-improvement and fraternity. This was the problem with the Ultimate Parkour Challenge, and is a growing problem concerning RedBull’s Art of Motion.
Take Flight
August 9th, 2012 on 6:09 pm
The idea you put forth is the general resistance to the idea. Thank you for sharing it. You make good points, but if David Belle says that Parkour competitions are OK, then we side with that. The context is how, and that’s something the the MTV UPC and the Red Bull AOM didn’t and have yet to get right.

TF
Robert
August 9th, 2012 on 7:35 pm
In my opinion Parkour should not be competitive. I think parkour competition is a good idea in the same way that communism and socialism are a good idea (before you argue against that, try looking up the theory, not listening to politicians) its a good idea if someone can do it right… but no one has done it right yet and I have yet to hear of a way to execute it so that it is done with the proper spirit in mind. If it can’t be done right it shouldn’t be done. (that being said I am open to it being done if someone comes up with a great idea to make it work… I just don’t see that happening at this point.)
Daniel Loginov
August 9th, 2012 on 8:42 pm
Well…. In my opinion, No. I’d be pretty disappointed if this was turned into an olympic sport, or EVEN a sport. Not just because of the competitive concept, but the image it will put out towards the rest of the world. But do whatever you want, I don’t care…..
Asha
August 9th, 2012 on 11:49 pm
We only have your word for that – I’d prefer to hear it directly from David himself (easily done in today’s technological world).
Chippa
August 10th, 2012 on 12:24 am
BMX was a demo sport for an Olympics.

Seems contradictory for David to say there are no comps in Parkour but that it would be good to see in the Olympics. It’s confusing, think it needs more direct clarification.
Richard
August 10th, 2012 on 3:01 am
BMX is in the olympics
David Ivey
August 10th, 2012 on 8:21 pm
Yes, David Belle is important for obvious reasons but he said that his word shouldn’t be treated as gospel. That desire and his actions of, essentially, deserting us makes his opinion far less critical and relevant. Also, last time I checked, community is an important part of parkour so it should be up to us. If these responses are any sort of litmus test then it really should stay out of the Olympics.

Also “but if David Belle says that Parkour competitions are OK, then we side with that” is some weak sauce reasoning.
Take Flight
August 14th, 2012 on 5:40 am
“…his actions of, essentially, deserting us makes his opinion far less critical and relevant.”

David, with all respect, when you say this it becomes clear that you don’t understand Parkour, and you don’t understand Belle. We’re going to forward this on and hopefully we can get someone close to Belle to write a blog that will clear some of this up. Thank you for your comment. TF
Braco
August 15th, 2012 on 1:51 am
Yes, Pakrour is for olimpics
Aaron Parkour
August 15th, 2012 on 1:00 pm
I mean the red bull art of motion works, so why wouldn’t a similar competition work ?
Eliot
August 17th, 2012 on 4:46 am
No. Just no.
insta
August 17th, 2012 on 8:15 pm
i say yes yes yes i think thats a great idea really please then i would watch
FREERUNNING250
October 11th, 2012 on 10:16 am
I am writing a speech about how it should be in the Olympics so i say it should be in the Olympics it would make it wayyyy more interesting and more popular
Griffen
January 8th, 2013 on 5:47 am
this should be in the olympics.
Griffen
January 8th, 2013 on 5:48 am
This should be in the olympics
JD
March 5th, 2013 on 8:37 pm
So…parkour is slamming your forearms against trees, doing 1000 jumps in 8 hours, and there is no accomplishment in it (This is, of course, according to Adam Dunlap).

However, there SHOULD be competitions where we get a sense of accomplishment? And not only that, but parkour (being a non-competitive discipline and training method), should be advertised and broadcast all over the world in a competitive way? I’m not seeing any continuity in your line of thinking, Mr. Dunlap…
Derek Chen
March 5th, 2013 on 11:37 pm
It should definitely be in the olympics. As Shaun Wood said, competition is embedded into parkour, as with any sport. Parkour being in the olympics would allow the great traceurs of our time to reach out to more people and get parkour to become more popular. Besides, in my opinion, anyone who is a good traceur has to be equal in the “philosophy” of parkour as he/she is at the physical part of it. The competitions, like Ryan Doyle said about the Red Bull Art of Motion, would not be all the traceurs competing against each other; it would be human vs. course every single time. Parkour and freerunning to me is all about having fun, and competitions are definitely part of that.
Take Flight
March 7th, 2013 on 12:14 pm
We don’t think Adam was saying there was no accomplishment in Parkour. He seemed to be describing a mindset to always get better.

And in this article he doesn’t say that competitions would give people a sense of accomplishment or that they should be advertised and broadcast. In fact he recently said publicly that he thought competitions were a disgrace. But he explained that as well.

http://www.adamdunlap.com/blog/explaining-the-parkour-city-championships-and-parkour-competitions-again/

Thank you for your comment :-)
Take Flight
March 7th, 2013 on 12:23 pm
“The competitions, like Ryan Doyle said about the Red Bull Art of Motion, would not be all the traceurs competing against each other; it would be human vs. course every single time.”

Well said. Although we don’t know for sure, we think that’s the heart Belle has for competitions. It’s not about “I’m better than you, I’m going to win!” It’s more of a time to get together with others and sharing your passion and movement.

Thank you for your comment and for sharing :-)
Aiden
May 6th, 2013 on 11:34 pm
Hey, although I understand why some people would like to keep parkour to themselves, that seems abit selfish. Parkour/Freerunning is an amazing sport and should be shared with the whole world to show how great it is. Concerning competitism, Like the forum said, it wouldnt exactly be competitive. More of a “Show what can you do, in as many different ways as possible, and as quick as possible.” Then they can share what they know with the whole world!
Take Flight
May 7th, 2013 on 10:03 am
@Aiden – Great comment. Thank you for sharing :-)