They will never participate to the Olympics. They will not be called “performance athletes” and they will never win conventional competitions or medals. But in their communities and exclusive clubs, they are gods and rulers of their preferred urban sport. Their name probably won’t make the sports’ section newspapers headlines, but they make any newspapers’ headlines, as in terms of agility, speed, body strengths, courage and discipline, they can match almost any great athlete out there, as they are the free spirits of today’s world.
Urban sports gained an extreme popularity among courageous and daring individuals, no matter their age or gender and in the past years, some urban sports became regular serious competitions, where heroes are born every day. From the simplest, easiest a-child-can-do physical activity to the most bizarre and life threatening passion, urban sports are something to consider by those who want to feel the taste of adrenaline rushing through their bodies.
- Free climbing
One of the most spectacular urban sports that has an ever-growing fan base, free climbing dates back nearly 120 years ago, when a famous mountain climber decided to ascend bare-handed the Cambridge University building. From that point on, free climbing gained an extensive popularity among men and women altogether who, usually using safety climbing gear but without being assisted by the typical harness or cords, they play Spiderman on buildings, edifices and even the highest sky scrapers, as they defy the laws of physics and test their body limitations. One of the most famous and heroic figures in solo climbing is Frenchman Alain Robert who set a few world records by himself, climbing near 80 of the tallest buildings in the world. Some of the world’s prodigies in free climbing include world-known Alex Honnold who is only in his thirties, and yet is a climbing star, as he conquered both Yosemite Valley’s Freerider and the Nose of El Capitan. And if you thought only men can do it, think again, as some women can match any superstar Olympic athlete with their strength, grace and courage. Or at least this is what free soloist Katie Brown says in her book “Girl on the Rocks: A Woman’s Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace, and Courage”, as this special lady managed to be one of the two first women that ever ascended West Face, Learning Tower at Yosemite.
- Extreme Street Rollerblading
There are quite a few out there who’d dare engage in this activity, as it is not only crazy, but also dangerous. Described in words, this urban sport doesn’t sound so spectacular, but in reality it is practiced only by the most fit athletes, stuntmen and extreme sensation seekers. Rollerblading is something almost any kid can do and become good at, while this particular sport involves a lot more than equilibrium skills. It all consists in the gear: a special all-body suite usually manufactured out of neoprene, just as a diver’s suite, which is heavily plated – like a biker’s suite – and is provided with around 30 – 31 rolls all over its surface. What is extreme here is that this suite allows the practitioner to roll at speeds reaching even 80 km/h in any position he or she wants: standing, sliding on their backs, their abdomen, or even on one side. This is almost a utopia, considering that only a few lucky ones can witness or practice this extreme sport, but who says that in a few years we won’t see these suites becoming available for mass usage?
- Parkour
This is any urban environment’s king sport, as buildings, asphalt, concrete and virtually every possible obstacle becomes the training field for these gods of agility, speed, equilibrium and cognitive space computing abilities. You can spot a parkour (or free run) practitioner as he runs, climbs, jumps, rolls over and crawls usually in a city, using natural or artificial elements of his environment (cars, trees, walls, buildings, stairs and so on), the main purpose being reaching point B after leaving point A in a continuous, uninterrupted movement that solicits the practitioner’s skill of identifying and using the most efficient and fast way of covering a distance using only the means of their own bodies and overcoming any possible obstacle. The founding father of Parkour is French David Belle, sports teacher, actor and stuntman, with a heavy experience in athletics, martial arts, gymnastics, alpinism and the military. He founded this discipline based on the major elements of these sports, building the fundamentals of this sport on the body’s ability to move flexibly in any direction. This is why, since the 80’s, you might have seen boys and girls equipped with good adherence running shoes (very important to avoid a plantar fasciitis suffer) and comfortable clothes jumping between buildings, escalading walls, rolling under urban obstacles, almost flying sometimes and certainly reminding of imponderability. If you saw the movies Yamakashi or District 13, you have an idea of what the best trained free runners can do.
