In most sports, there is an opponent that you spend the entire game trying to beat, or there\u2019s a star player that needs to be in the middle of every play to maximize their team\u2019s chance of winning. In parkour there isn\u2019t any of that. Everybody is there to improve themselves and the people around them with no opposition on the other side.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/sweatspring2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/04\/Parkour-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The documented origins of this sport dates back to the first World War when French naval officer, Georges H\u00e9bert, admired the athleticism of the native tribes he met in Africa. A Swiss architect was so inspired by H\u00e9bert\u2019s work that he developed an obstacle course where soldier\u2019s physical capabilities could be tested which is now the globally standard procedure for military training.<\/p>\n
Fast forward about 30 years later when David Belle was born. Son of French army veteran Raymond Belle, David was exposed to the way army personnel were trained at a very young age. After completing his military service David\u00a0 <\/span>would continue his parkour training and would film his sessions which he would later turn into a news feature about parkour. The video gained traction and made people aware of the sport. Today David is known as the godfather of parkour.<\/p>\n In 2010 Greater Toronto Parkour started as a non-profit organization that is dedicated to promoting mindful parkour, freerunning and L\u2019Art Du Deplacement around the city.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started off with the website meetup.com where people would organize sessions and meet together and over the years of building up it was officially turned into a non-profit organization with the goal of promoting safe and mindful parkour practice in and around Toronto,\u201d says Greater Toronto Parkour board member Iliya Begic, 24, who is also is attending York University for anthropology.<\/p>\n Now with almost 200 members on their Facebook page the GTA parkour are a vast group from the Philippines to Scarborough but welcome newcomers with varying levels of skills<\/p>\n Despite diversity it\u2019s easy to see that the parkour community has a tight-knit culture and no matter what skill level that is brought to the table there will never be a time when someone will feel like an outlier.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone I meet is very different but it\u2019s good because we get together and learn from each other,\u201d says Begic.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, either with movement or technique there\u2019s always something you can learn. You can talk to people to form these great relationships. I think it\u2019s one of the biggest drawing factors for parkour. It\u2019s not even the sport itself, it\u2019s the community it creates.\u201d<\/p>\n For one member of the GTA parkour group the sport means a little more than just a social atmosphere. Chantelle Flores moved to Canada from the Philippines three years ago, and has found solace in parkour.<\/p>\n \u201cParkour helps me with my self-esteem because in the Philippines your height even effects your job opportunities.\u201d says the 30-year-old Philippine native.<\/p>\n The 4\u20199\u201d Flores says she was unable to be a cashier in her home country due to the height requirement which is 5\u20190\u201d for that position. In contrast, the average female in Canada is 5\u20194\u201d. In the Philippines the average female is 4\u201911\u201d. Despite being one of the smaller countries in the world, it still doesn\u2019t change these height regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was tough for me, because I know I\u2019m capable but I can\u2019t help it because it\u2019s the culture. So, when I came here [Canada] I tried parkour and when I hurdle over the obstacles it makes me feel capable,\u201d says Flores.<\/p>\n \u201cThe relationships I\u2019ve made here are something more distinctive I know my group members on a different level because I\u2019ve seen them face fears,\u201d says GTA parkour member Smiley Jammer.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s really a strong emphasis on individual choice and if I were to push someone and say \u2018oh come on you should do it\u2019 and then they fall and hurt themselves then that\u2019s really on me. So we don\u2019t do that and we really respect each other and our choices and that\u2019s really something beautiful about the relationships I\u2019ve built here,\u201d says Jammer.<\/p>\n The parkour collective is unique and growing. The UK has become the first country to recognize parkour as an official sport as of this past January. Sport or not parkour brings people together on an expansive playing field where nobody wants to see anybody fail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Freedom can be simple. It\u2019s walking up to the edge of the rail and staring down the barrel of your next trick and knowing the only pre-requisite for freedom is a running start and the ingenuity to create. You aren\u2019t going to catch free runners spending their Sunday\u2019s on the couch unless they are vaulting over it.<\/p>\n In fact, they can be found at the local rec centre, running, hopping and vaulting up and down the and concrete ledges. Some of the stunts being pulled off would even make Jean-Claude Van Damme proud.<\/p>\n For GTA parkour member Omari Elemanawi he says parkour was a passion of his before he even knew it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,192],"tags":[6,142],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour.jpg",1155,770,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-640x427.jpg",640,427,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-768x512.jpg",696,464,true],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour.jpg",696,464,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour.jpg",1155,770,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour.jpg",1155,770,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-150x100.jpg",150,100,true],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-218x150.jpg",218,150,true],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-324x400.jpg",324,400,true],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-485x360.jpg",485,360,true],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-696x464.jpg",696,464,true],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour-1068x712.jpg",1068,712,true],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Parkour.jpg",1155,770,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"sweatmag","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/author\/sweatmag\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Freedom can be simple. It\u2019s walking up to the edge of the rail and staring down the barrel of your next trick and knowing the only pre-requisite for freedom is a running start and the ingenuity to create. You aren\u2019t going to catch free runners spending their Sunday\u2019s on the couch unless they are vaulting…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}