UNITED STATES PARKOUR ASSOCIATION
USPK and Sport Parkour League Announce Partnership
2023 March 6th
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The United States Parkour Association (USPK), the US parkour governing body, and Sport Parkour League (SPL) announced today a partnership focused on the national competitive parkour league, a circuit of 40+ competitions across the United States.
Sport Parkour will become an official partner of the USPK Nationals, providing professional consultation with a deep level of integration into key activities of the upcoming USPK Nationals including planning and staging the national competitive event. USPK will also collaborate on original content, including the USPK Sport Parkour Competition Rulebook, standing policies, and more that will affect the upcoming 2023 competition season, reaching an estimated 800+ competitive parkour athletes.
The agreement will provide a unique opportunity for the competitive parkour community to expand as competitions grow and experiment with different formats. Sport Parkour League has agreed to adopt and comply with USPK policies surrounding event and athlete safety, the recent trans inclusion policy, and more. USPK continues to work with organizations that reflect the values of inclusion and adaptability in its decision-making process – including competitions.
The organization’s event director, Melissa McQueen, says, “The crew at SPL have been setting the bar for parkour competition for years, first with North American Parkour Championships and now with Sport Parkour League. The USPK partnership is a tremendous opportunity to continue to define the future of parkour competition in the US and around the world.”
Co-founder of the Sport Parkour League, Rene Scavington, shares “I’m excited to be finally taking a big step in expanding our capabilities as a sports institution. Partnering with USPK unifies us with the circuits taking place in America and gives us another team of people to help put out the best competition experiences possible. We feel truly fortunate to be bringing our format to the 2023 USPK Nationals and qualify up and coming talent for SPL2.”
Regional parkour circuits have kicked off their anticipated events as early as last month with headlining championships later this May and June. The West Coast Parkour Championship has already held their first three events at Freedom in Motion (Murrieta, California), Parkour Tualatin (Tualatin, Oregon), and Firestorm Ultra (Westminster, California). Upcoming events through the West, Mountain West, South East, and Midwest will be held at Sessions (San Jose, California), Swift Movement (Cincinnati, Ohio), Path Movement (Denver, Colorado), and Xcel 360 (Odessa, Florida).
Parkour has seen tremendous growth in popularity since its recreational origination in the 1980s – and along with it, the call for the organization for judging and scoring competitive parkour. Alan Tran, USPK board director, says, “competitive sport parkour is still in its infancy and continues to evolve. As competitions in our sport grow, we aim to develop [sport parkour] in a direction that respects some of the original practice – a sense of freedom, self-empowerment, and adaptability. I know it’ll continue to change as we trial-and-error different competition formats, scoring, and systems.”
Unique to this year’s Nationals, podium athletes will be forwarded to the 2023 Sport Parkour League competition. The upcoming final will serve as the premiere SPL US-based qualifier for the international SPL tournament. More information to follow with the announcement and press release of the USPK Nationals.
The USPK Nationals will be the final 2023 event this coming summer. Athletes may qualify for the Nationals by participating in regional circuits and finish in an advancement position to guarantee a spot in the national champions. Regional qualifiers will be held across the country and used to qualify athletes for the USPK National Championships. Circuit qualifiers and national dates are subject to change – contact your local coordinator to verify all circuit information. Specific details and information for the National Competition event is expected to be announced this coming March.
In addition to the USPK Nationals, the USPK Board of Directors is further developing support by advancing on an Athletes’ Advisory Committee and a Judges Committee. Any individuals interested in learning more can reach out to alan@uspk.org.
About the United States Parkour Association
The United States Parkour Association (USPK) is the National Governing Body for parkour, freerunning and l’art du deplacement in the USA. It is a non-profit organization formed by members of the parkour community, committed to growing and protecting the discipline of parkour through events, education, and outreach. A 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 2018, USPK works to bring together all of those involved in our practice: practitioners, students, parents of students, professional athletes, business owners, community leaders,and general enthusiasts.
About Sport Parkour League
The North American Parkour Championships (NAPC) premiered in 2013 and introduced three unique disciplines of competition to parkour: skill, speed, and style. Each discipline was designed to reflect a separate element of parkour practice. The goal of Sport Parkour League’s founding is to build a competitive format for elite parkour athletes and to create a platform for developing an engaged audience for the sport of parkour. From the very first NAPC event, a live audience and livestream broadcast of the event were included. It is our mission to showcase the highest level of parkour achievement through the lens of a competition format that remains true to the culture. We aim to provide athletes an opportunity to test themselves against a field of elite challenges and demonstrate their capabilities to fans across the world.