September 12, 2014 by Charlie Eisenhood in Livewire
Listen to this short piece from NPR’s All Things Considered about parkour and consider the amazing number of parallels to ultimate.
Making preliminary motions towards the Olympics? Check. Having internal disagreement about whether the Olympics should be a part of the sport? Check. Short guy concerned about losing to a tall guy? Check.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway though is that the International Olympic Committee sought out parkour officials to have a meeting. That can really only be a positive sign for ultimate. The IOC knows that the Olympics has been getting a bit stale, with the same sports being showcased every single year with almost no changes. They want to get younger, they want to modernize.
With the Olympic Agenda 2020 looking like it could change the way sports are selected for Olympic inclusion, sports like ultimate (which doesn’t have the same pathway to the Games through another discipline the way parkour might) may soon be much more likely to find a place in the world’s most prestigious international sports competition.
H/T Ian Toner.
