Meet the parkour athletes defying fear and gravity at Red Bull Art of Motion.

‘You just get the job done out small parts of it’

Parkour — typically referred to as freerunning — involves creatively shifting by an city natural environment: flipping, leaping and vaulting throughout many obstacles.

On Astypalea, the opportunities for parkour routines are countless, as illustrated by the wide variety of methods each individual athlete unveiled at Art of Motion.

The competition’s composition also inspired creativity it was split into 3 situations, each individual held on a various day, that demanded a various skillset.

For the first obstacle, the athletes explored the island and recorded a online video clip in the area most effective suited to their fashion.

Then, they recorded a 45-to-60-second online video with a videographer, and eventually, they participated in a stay challenge, developing 10-second strings of methods known as combos.

At last year’s Artwork of Movement, he found that all people was throwing down comparable routines, so he made the decision to include a chair into his to stand out from the crowd.

“I want to be distinct … So I did that … And this yr, I want to action it up a notch. I use not only a chair but a table and a broom for my movie,” he reported.

For his stay challenge, Reese eschewed props but nevertheless created a unforgettable plan as he leaped across a avenue and somersaulted off the best of a one-tale making.

Olson will take a far more orthodox strategy, a little adapting her design and style to complement every location in which she competes.

“When I am generating a line or a thing, I am going to just start off with the to start with go and then I perform about from there right until more issues occur into my mind,” she mentioned.

“Sooner or later, it just feels like a pull line … and then you just do the job out little items of it and set it collectively.”

Her are living plan was entire of twisting somersaults, including a single off a setting up, and a backflip launched from a waist-large wall.

Beating injuries

When pushing the boundaries of what is achievable, on the other hand, injuries can take place.

Japan’s Ryuya Kawasaki, last year’s winner Krystian Kowalewski and Australian Dominic Di Tommaso all had to abandon Artwork of Movement owing to ankle injuries.

Aiden Rudolph, who gained the online qualifying system, was pressured to withdraw entirely just in advance of the competition began and was replaced by his equivalent twin brother, Shea.

“At any time because I was younger, this has been a desire of mine coming to Art of Movement and creating it in,” the 18-year-previous stated.

“So I was surely a little bit upset that I experienced to withdraw. We made the most of an unfortunate problem, you can find no one else I would somewhat have replace me.”

Shea used his twin’s disappointment as enthusiasm and secured an exceptional fourth area over-all.

Olson has also suffered with injuries. All through the Covid-19 pandemic, she underwent shoulder reconstructive operation that took a yr to mend.

“I believed I was accomplished competing,” she claimed before the competitiveness.

“But there was a thing telling me to continue to keep likely … I am 29 years old [which] appears to be older for the activity. I want to show that people today my age can even now toss down.”

‘How to crack a fall’

Because of to these risks, parkour athletes cautiously calibrate their routines to lower injury.

“The initially point you discover when you do parkour is normally how to shoulder roll or how to split a fall,” Reese mentioned, “[and] how to do factors exactly where if you mess up the matter you might be attempting to do, you can actually slide and continue to do it safely and securely.”

Reese applies this technique to each new transfer he learns, considering strategies he may possibly tumble and taking steps to mitigate these dangers before trying anything at all.

This considered strategy contradicts the popular perception of parkour as a perilous — practically foolhardy — willpower.

“[People] really don’t see the progression that goes into it,” Olson stated. “No one just starts off out jumping a 20-foot gap across a roof … Everybody has a area that they begin and then they get to that.”

In point, as Aiden Rudolph explained, some parkour athletes can invest years considering a notably hard jump.

“A great deal extra goes into it than just winging on your own off a building,” he explained.

‘Never any authentic animosity’

In a somewhat risky sport which is also a little, near-knit local community, its showpiece occasions — these kinds of as Artwork of Movement — can be collaborative as properly as competitive.

“I have in no way … felt like there was any true animosity there,” Olson explained. “I have constantly felt like people ended up just enthusiastic for me and I was often excited for them, and I assume it’s a actually fantastic detail. “

As an alternative, the minor rivalries that do type seem to be to encourage the athletes to land even larger and better tips.

“It really is truly fantastic to see that, specially amongst the ladies,” Olson ongoing.

“I am just looking at so significantly among them that I have hardly ever viewed prior to with the women. And it is really just really exciting to observe that development.”

Despite the fact that the activity has progressed throughout her very long damage layoff, Olson held off the youthful athletes and secured her second win in the women’s levels of competition at Artwork of Movement to entire her comeback.

“It feels awesome to get again, it feels like an out-of-human body encounter,” she stated. “It can be been a single of the most outstanding months of my life.”