Parkour has nothing to do with gymnastics,

Parkour is not a “street” sport

The good thing is that you do not need special shoes or clothes, in order to practice it! But you need to be clear on something – the boys and girls who practice it, should not be called “parkourers,” because it is offending to them but “traceurs” or “traceuses.”

The place where they practice in Athens is the wooden benches at the Athens University building, which are a high construction made from wood and steel. There I met Hristos (noxteryn), Eva (phoenix), Stefania (LyNx), Eleana (elanor), Dionisis (Kira) and Stefanos (Eon), who were kind enough to answer to all of my questions connected to parkour.

Since when does parkour exist in Greece?

Hrostos: I started practicing in July 2005 and then I met 2-3 people here in Greece who were also practicing parkour.

Stefanos: We can never know for sure when this sport started in Greece.

But you are the most organized ones. I couldn’t find another website for traceurs…

Stefanos: in 2007 we organized the first official online community and slowly, slowly we increased – now we have over 1000 members…

Are most of them Athenians or there are traceurs in other cities around Greece?

Stefanos: Most of them are in Athens and Thessaloniki but there are people also in other cities and in Patra.

When do you organize meetings?

Stefanos: We practice whenever it is convenient for everybody. For example, in Thessaloniki we have practices three times per week.

Do you go to specific places?

Stefanos: Yes, we go to places, which are convenient for beginners and for advances traceurs. The eye of an experienced traceur can evaluate the place in a more difficult way as opposed to the eye of a beginner and this way the beginner can be taught. In Thessaloniki we usually gather either at the university or in front of Saint Sophia church. In Athens there is one place in the Polytechnic University, which is convenient or at the playground near Saint Kosma.