(Photo above l. Krystan Kowalewaki & Lilou Ruel take the rooftops)
Red Bull Art of Motion 2022 line up and new multi-part competition format announced
- Art of Motion, Red Bull’s long standing parkour competition returns with a new multi-part format
- 16 of the world’s best athletes are set to compete at Red Bull Art of Motion fromJune 9 to June 12
- The mix of freerunning legends and the new generation of talents will come together to explore the future of freerunning during a collaborative event week
16 Athletes from across the globe are set to compete in the world’s most daring parkour competition, Red Bull Art of Motion, in Astypalea, Greece, a paradise for parkour enthusiasts.
This year, for the first time, the athletes taking part will face a multi-part competition format with three exciting challenges that will put their skills to the test and push the boundaries of parkour.
Starting on June 9, the best male and female parkour athletes from Europe, America and Asia will go head to head across three days of competition, workshops and mentoring on the picturesque island of Astypalea, with windmills, cliffsides, rooftops, balconies and much more, giving the athletes new opportunities to showcase moves and amaze the audience and judges.
This year’s multi-part competition will reinvent what parkour competitions look like with three challenges taking place over three days.
The ‘Exploration Challenge’: Athletes explore the island to uncover the location best suited for their skill set and film a video, showcasing their parkour skills, to impress the judges the most. Whoever makes the most of this dream location by the end of the day will take home the points for the challenge.
The ‘Spot Challenge’ With three hours to film a 45-60 second video at a location of their choice, each athlete will collaborate with with a parkour videographer to produce jaw dropping content.The judges will mark each video on creativity, difficulty, execution, flow, and overall with the top five athletes receiving points to their running score.
‘Combo-style’ competition: Athletes will throw down short but powerful combos with a time limit of just 10 seconds. They will compete in heats of four and each athlete will get three attempts to achieve the best possible score.
All three challenges are weighted equally towards a final score, and only the top five athletes from each challenge will receive points. Following the three days of scintillating action, The Red Bull Art of Motion winners will be announced.
This year will see the return of Art of Motion 2021 winners, Krystian Kowalewski from Poland, and Noa Diorgina from the Netherlands along with a host of other parkour legends and exciting new talent, including:
- Ed Scott – UK
- Evengy ‘Archie’ Aroyan – Russia
- Dominic Di Tommaso – Australia
- Travis Verkiak – UK
- Bob Reese – USA
- Ella Bucio – MEX
- Ryuya Kuwasaki – Japan
- Lilou Ruel – France
- Elis Torhall – Sweden
- Stefan Dollinger – Austria
- Dimitris ‘DK’ Kyrsanidis – Greece
- Sydney Olson – USA
- Aiden Rudolph – USA
- Miranda Tibbling – SWE
In addition to these athletes, Red Bull Art of Motion up-and-coming invited parkour athletes around the world to participate in the online qualifiers, by submitting a 60-second freerunning video clip – giving amateur athletes a chance to compete alongside legends from the sport and learn from the best.
Two winners were selected including 18 year old Miranda Tibbling from Sweden and USA parkour athlete Aiden Rudolph.
Aiden Rudolph said: “I can’t believe I’m going to be competing at Red Bull Art of Motion. I’ve been following the competition and the legendary athletes that compete in it ever since I started training in 2012.
“I can’t wait to get to Astypalea and show the world and the judges what I’ve got in my skill set.”
Noa Diorgina, last year’s Red Bull Art of Motion winner, said: “Winning best female in my first Redbull Art of Motion was the best moment of my parkour career. I was already happy I could be part of it and winning it was beyond my expectations.
“I’m excited to get to the island, it looks like Parkour heaven and this year Im working on some new tricks and combos but i’m not giving anything away just yet!”
The judges at this year’s Red Bull Art of Motion will see the return of some parkour legends and true pioneers of the sport, including head judge, Kie Willis (UK), Luci Romberg (USA), Gabriel Nunez (USA) Jason Paul (GER), Luis Alkmim (PRT) and Alex Schauer (AUT).
Freerunning is the art of expression through motion which started in France. Freerunners pass static obstacles using techniques such as jumping, vaulting, rolling, spinning, flipping and climbing. The athletes use obstacles and the spaces between them to create a flow of movement, taking physical objects that are intended to restrict motion and using them to enhance it instead. The obstacles can be anything in your environment, so parkour is often practised in urban areas because there are bundles of suitable structures, such as buildings, fences, rails and walls.
This year’s Red Bull Art of Motion will be the most recent edition of the flagship freerunning competition, and will take place over the course of three days.
Find out more atwww.redbullartofmotion.com.
Photo credit -Red Bull