More than 100 athletes will be leaping, rolling and backflipping into the new year at the Athletes in Motion parkour competition at Play Project.
This is the second year the Burlington facility will be hosting the competition, which runs Jan. 6-8, and this time out they have added a 16+ age category so adults can also compete.
Play Project owner Trevor de Groot said there will be three age groups (10-12, 12-15 and 16+) competing in three categories of events (freestyle, skill and speed).
Parkour — sometimes called freerunning or art du déplacement — first became popular in France in the 1990s before YouTube videos, commercials and films like Casino Royale brought it to international audiences.
Parkour athletes, called traceurs, aim to move from place to place and over obstacles in the quickest and most efficient way without using equipment; they leap, roll, vault, run, climb and swing.
In Burlington, de Groot first established Play Project in 2015 using outdoor and community spaces. In 2019, he opened Play Project, a safe, dedicated training facility for budding traceurs, on Landmark Road.
"It's kind of a weird sport," de Groot said. "It is a bit of a subculture sport. I define it as a sport where the goal is to get over obstacles; the way we do that is through things like running, jumping, climbing, vaulting and swinging. People perceive it to be jumping from building to building because that is how it is portrayed on social media and Youtube."
While de Groot says higher-level athletes may do some of these maneuvers, most of what is practised is at the ground level.
"Most of our higher-level athletes have been with us for five-plus years," he said. "They have all that training under their belt. They know how to plan, ways to fall properly."
De Groot himself has been doing parkour for 14 years, since joining a club at McMaster University. The year after he joined, he took over the club and he has never looked back.
"I travelled all across North America to learn parkour," he said. Now, in addition to running the training facility, de Groot does stunt work for movies and commercials.
This year, Play Project will be welcoming athletes from around Ontario, Quebec and possibly from the United States (Michigan) to compete.
"The whole point of it is to give our athletes something to work toward," de Groot said. "We have a competitive team as well, with between 32 and 36 athletes. Hosting our own competition allows our athletes to get some experience before we go out to other gyms and compete there."
Many of the athletes are competing against themselves more than against each other, as they try to establish personal best times or scores. "It's interesting seeing their growth as they progress through the competitive season," de Groot said.
He expects most of the competitors will be between ages 16 and 30 but there may be a few "outliers, who are over 30".
"We have adult classes as well and some of those athletes are competing," de Groot said. "Everyone can work to their own capacity and try and improve that."
