Freerunning joins sport establishment

Level 3 Advanced

1 Warmer

In an inner city area, three young men in jeans and hooded tops are quickly running and jumping over
walls, down stairs, across rooftops, through windows.
What’s going on? What are they doing and why?

2 Key words and phrases

Find the word pairs (two words) in the article. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.

1. Growing quickly without any outside help: ____________________________. (para 1)

2. A hobby, action or pastime kept secret from the public: ____________________________. (para 2)

3. A first official meeting: ____________________________. (para 3)

4. An older person who has had a long and respected career in a certain area: __________________________.
(para 3)

5. To say something quietly and with respect: ____________________________. (para 5)

6. A stealthy act of entering a house in order to steal something: ____________________________. (para 5)

7. When you are playful, full of high spirits, but doing nothing in particular: ____________________________.
(para 5)

8. A ruling organization; one that is in charge: ____________________________. (para 11)

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NEWS LESSONS / Freerunning joins sport establishment / Advanced

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Freerunning joins sport establishment
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Freerunning joins sport establishment
Esther Addley at the Camden Roundhouse
September 4, 2008
1 Five years ago, outside Liverpool Street station
in London, a group of 13 young men gathered
for what was, at the time, the biggest meeting
of freerunners in history. The sport, in which
participants perform balletic leaps and flips
using walls, bars and any other street furniture
available, was still in its earliest infancy,
mushrooming spontaneously across Britain
among young people who had seen films of the
French urban sport Parkour and wanted to adapt
it into a freer and more expressive form.
2 How times change. Last night, the once
underground pursuit declared itself firmly in
the sporting establishment by holding its first
world championships, hosted in one of London’s
top venues, sponsored by a major credit card
company and filmed by Sky Sports.
3 “I never, ever thought we’d get to this place so
quickly,” said John Kerr, or ‘Kerbie’, one of the
event’s organizers. Present at that inaugural
gathering at Liverpool Street, he finds himself, at
21, one of the sport’s elder statesmen.
4 He said: “We all feel amazingly blessed. Freerunning
is so young and so new. A few years ago we were
getting chased by police on a regular basis and
property owners would shout at us. Now they pay us
to come and perform on their properties.”
5 Fifty feet above him, one of the event’s 23
competitors was warming up by balancing in a
handstand on the edge of an enormous black
box, part of the equipment on which he would
later compete, before flipping on to a nearby bar,
spinning around it, and dismounting. Below him,
his peers – those not already performing ‘gainers’
and ‘loser flips’ and ‘layout backflips’ from a lattice
of steel poles – murmured approvingly. The
sport might be said to combine the best qualities of
gymnastics, cat burglary and teenage mucking about,
but the skill of the participants is unarguable.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / Freerunning joins sport establishment / Advanced
6 Few underground activities can claim to have made
it into the mainstream with such dazzling speed.
Many participants trace the birth of freerunning to
a BBC ident (a TV station’s symbol or logo, often
accompanied by music, a jingle or an animation) in
2002, showing a Parkour runner adapting his skills
on the rooftops of London.
7 Urban Freeflow, the sport’s central organization,
was founded a year later. Though closely related
to Parkour, which originated in the Paris suburbs a
decade ago, Parkour prizes speed and efficiency
of movement, in contrast to the expressiveness
of freerunners. As such, though it is practised
worldwide – last night’s competitors hailed from
17 countries – freerunning could reasonably be
described as a brand new British sport.
8 Urban Freeflow now trains the Metropolitan
police and Royal Marines, as well as organizing
workshops in schools, and estimates that 15,000
people now practise the sport in Britain (95%
are male).
9 The organization choreographed action
sequences for the films Casino Royale, The
Bourne Ultimatum and 28 Weeks Later, and also
performs at public events.
10 As the founder of Urban Freeflow and the
organizer of last night’s competition, Paul ‘EZ’
Corkery could be considered the grandfather of
freerunning – at 34, he considers himself retired.
He is in discussions with the 2012 Olympic
organizers over how freerunning might be
involved, perhaps in the opening ceremonies, or
in workshops.
11 “The organizers are really eager to collaborate
with anything that gets the kids off their arses,”
he said. Does he see a day when freerunning
might be an Olympic sport? “I don’t really think
it fits. You’d need to put in place a national
governing body, things like that, and it would kill
the sport, really.”
12 “ These guys are my YouTube idols, it means
everything to be here with them,” said Franck
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Freerunning joins sport establishment
Level 3 Advanced
‘Cali’ Nelle, from France. “I’m not really thinking Parkour is the art of moving through your
about winning. It’s just being here alongside environment using only your body and the
the best of the best. The first ever freerunning surroundings to propel yourself. It can include
world championships? That’s a big event. That’s running, jumping, climbing, even crawling,
something for the history books.” if that is the most suitable movement for the
situation.
© Guardian News & Media 2008
Source: http://www.misterParkour.com/faq/
First published in The Guardian, 04/09/08

Freerunning uses the same movements Freerunning is more expressive and creative
as Parkour but with the emphasis being on in nature, with moves such as acrobatics, flips
aesthetics, fun and creativity. and spins.
Source: www.UrbanFreeflow.com Source: www.AmericanParkour.com

3 Skim-reading for comprehension

Skim-read the article again to find the answers to the questions.

1. Where was Parkour invented?

2. Where was the first freerunning championships held?
3. What age and sex is a typical freerunner?
4. How has peoples’ attitude to the sport changed in the last few years?
5. With what and back to when do people associate the birth of freerunning?
6. What is the main difference between Parkour and freerunning?
7. What professional bodies are interested in the sport?
8. What connection does the sport have with the film industry?
9. Is freerunning likely to become an Olympic sport?

4 Vocabulary

Find at least eight movement and action words in the article and definition.
Compare them paying particular attention to how and in which situations they can (and cannot) be
used. Write an example sentence for each word.
E.g. leap and flip
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NEWS LESSONS / Freerunning joins sport establishment / Advanced

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Freerunning joins sport establishment
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5 Discussion: Debate

A group of freerunners want to hold workshops in your town. Opinion is divided as to whether this is a
good thing or not.

1. Brainstorm reasons for or against providing freerunning workshops to male youths.

2. Divide into two teams: A ‘freerunners’ and B ‘concerned citizens’ and debate the topic.

Decide: Should the workshops be allowed to take place? If yes, what will the organizers do to ensure the safety of
citizens and their property?

! Your ideas:
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6 Webquest

Compare jumps and moves made by freerunners, Spiderman and flying squirrels by watching online
videos, making notes and reporting back.

• Watch a Parkour/freerunning sequence in a James Bond 007 film: http://de.youtube.com/

watch?v=IPmJ73XRlUs
• Watch excellent non-professional freerunners here: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=LIBaVojYCfo
• Watch the founder of Parkour in a TV commercial: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=5BOUohniyJU
• Find out further information about Parkour and freerunning at: http://www.misterParkour.com/faq/
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NEWS LESSONS / Freerunning joins sport establishment / Advanced

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Freerunning joins sport establishment
Level 3 Advanced

KEY

2 Key words and phrases 4 Vocabulary

1. mushrooming spontaneously possible answers:

2. underground pursuit leap; flip; balancing; handstand, spinning; dismounting;
3. inaugural gathering running; jumping; crawling, climbing
4. elder statesman
5. murmured approvingly
6. cat burglary
7. mucking about
8. governing body

3 Skim-reading for comprehension

1. France.
2. London, England.
3. Under 21 and male.
4. See para 4: “A few years ago we were getting chased
by police on a regular basis and property owners
would shout at us. Now they pay us to come and per
form on their properties”.
5. A BBC ident in 2002.
6. See para 7: “Parkour prizes speed and efficiency of
movement, in contrast to the expressiveness
of freerunners”.
7. “The Metropolitan police and Royal Marines”. Also
some schools (para 8).
8. See para 9: “The organization choreographed action
sequences for the films Casino Royale, the Bourne
Ultimatum and 28 Weeks Later”.
9. No, see para 11: “You’d need to put in place a national
governing body, and it would kill the sport”.
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NEWS LESSONS / Freerunning joins sport establishment / Advanced

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