Flips, twists and vaults are great for fighting jet lag. Tangui van Schingen (18) flew back from Japan on Tuesday and a day and a half later, early in the morning, he jumped through a training hall in The Hague with the best freerunners in the Netherlands.

Van Schingen took bronze at the Parkour World Championships in Tokyo in the speed section, where athletes complete an obstacle course full of obstacles as quickly as possible. In the sport’s other discipline, freestyle, in which Van Schingen finished tenth, the competitors have to impress the jury in a run full of jumps and tricks.

Van Schingen traveled to Japan with four other athletes, the head coach and the head of a Dutch delegation. The tournament in Tokyo was the first ever organized world championship in the very young sport.

The talented freerunners, as the athletes are called, are already dreaming of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. “That’s what we’re aiming for now,” says Van Schingen.

Secretly, freerunners were hoping the sport would make its Olympic debut in Paris 2024. If only because of its symbolism: Parkour originated in the early 1990s in the suburbs of the French capital.

Young people with a thirst for adventure and unrestricted movement turned their city into a playground for adults. Parkour and freerun pioneers David Belle and Sébastien Foucan freely jumped and ran from benches and trellises to walls and roofs through the neighborhood thirty years ago.

Acrobatic stunts were introduced to the world in Hollywood earlier this century through car chase scenes in all types of action films, including the James Bond film Casino Royale. With Foucan as a fleeing crook.

’13:00 salami’

Freerunning started for Van Schingen more than five years ago at a children’s festival. “Then I fell in love with them and have been making them every day since.” Every day he takes to the streets with friends in and around The Hague, where he grew up. “Exercise all day.”

When looking for the best “spots” in the province – “Scheveningen is also popular” – the work of art Salami at TU Delft proves to be an ideal place to practice. “‘Come at 1:00 p.m. salami,’ we then write.

Freerunners, like Van Schingen on his Instagram account, share their daily workouts extensively on social media:

Long before Van Schingen did his first somersaults and twists, freerunning was already being discussed at the national gymnastics association KNGU. They saw the potential but lacked the knowledge. The club combed the country for trainers and coaches in search of structures for the young urban sport. So they ended up with Mark van Swieten, now head coach of the Dutch freerun team, and later with Pepe Pont, now project manager of the sport for the KNGU.

After a good consultation with his wife, Pont broke off a career as a sales manager in the corporate world, with fifteen years of gymnastics experience as a gymnast and coach, he was retrained as a freerun coach, founded his own sports club and was particularly valued “because freerunning is for everyone”. .

It doesn’t start with somersaults, twists and jumps. “It’s the forms of movement like animal figures, with monkey walks, bear walks, frog jumps. And whether you work with children or seniors, everyone finds a challenge in it,” says Pont.

Athletic top training

Shortly before the Corona pandemic, Pont got involved with the Dutch parkour project and now the foundation stone has been laid. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, a group of four to five athletes trains in a special competition hall. Van Schingen is there, as is Noa Man, she is only 17 years old.

In 2017, the World Gymnastics Federation (FIG) officially accepted Parkour as a discipline and soon World Cup competitions were taking place, where Van Schingen and Man made a big impression.

Last year they won, among other things, gold and silver medals at prestigious World Cup competitions in Bulgaria and France. They won gold in freestyle and silver in speed at the World Games in the United States this year.

The first World Cup was scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. Last week it was finally time for Van Schingen and Man. In Japan.

“A very special experience,” is how Van Schingen describes the World Cup, where he won bronze among athletes from forty other countries. “Very big, many participants. That was a bit more intense. You can feel that it is more real and serious, then there are more nerves.”

In their thoughts, the young athletes will fly through the Olympic rings in Los Angeles as early as 2028. Van Schingen: “That’s definitely the dream. It won’t be for a couple of years, but we’re really looking forward to that.”

Lobby at the IOC

This dream is not an illusion. It would have been close if Parkour was already an Olympic event in Paris and according to Pont the sounds for 2028 are promising. The fact that there has now been a successful World Cup is a big step forward. Additionally, Parkour seamlessly connects to other new Olympic city sports like breakdancing and skateboarding.

But a lot depends on the FIG and the lobby at the IOC. “Parkour has a lot to contribute to the Olympics in the future,” said IOC Sport Director Kit McConnell when it became clear that the new sport would not make it to Paris 2024. According to IOC rules, parkour under the FIG flag may only be added if a current gymnastics discipline is evasive.

Dutch freerunners will focus on further growing their sport in the coming years. The KNGU offers partial financial support for participation in competitions, but: “After Corona, all unions will suffer from a smaller budget,” says Pont.

Despite this, the KNGU embraces the sport, according to Pont. “It’s on the innovation list. A little more will be invested again in 2023.” We are also hoping for grants and sponsors, but a lot will have to come from our own pockets.

Sponsors, teaching and travel

“Live from freerunning, no, it won’t be that yet,” says Van Schingen. “But you can get sponsors.” Like Man, she has Red Bull as a sponsor. Van Schingen recently completed freerun instructor training and now teaches children and other groups. Playing or not, Van Schingen sees a long career in sport ahead of him.

Either way, freerunning makes friends for life. “I was recently in Sweden for training. Before that I was in Norway, France, Belgium and Spain.”

“I’ve got guys from the community that I compete with all over the place. Then I’m like, ‘Yo, can I come?’ And then you train in another country for a week.”

Who knows, maybe Van Schingen will meet his international freerun friends on the American west coast in 2028. Then Van Schingen is 24 years old and Man is 23 years old. “I think I’ll reach my maximum strength then,” predicts Van Schingen. “It could be them primaryyears of my freerun career.”