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Parkour now has a place in Prince George

Riley Banzer is building a parkour community through newly opened Olympus Freerunning

A local entrepreneur has realized his dream of opening Prince George’s first and only parkour gym.

Riley Banzer opened Olympus Freerunning in mid-September after a five-year journey putting all the pieces together to get a parkour facility up and running in northern B.C.

“What I liked about parkour was that it’s you against you. It’s you trying to be better yourself,” Banzer tells PrinceGeorgeMatters. “You have to push the human body to do the craziest things and reach further than you thought you could and that is what drew me to it.”

When living in Vancouver Banzer went to a parkour gym, and when he moved back to Prince George he wanted there to be a similar facility in the community.

“I’m pretty much an adult-sized 10-year-old and I wanted an adult-sized jungle gym for jumping around and I didn’t have it so I tried to build it.”

He says parkour is a great alternative for people who don’t like organized sports but want to keep fit in a fun way.

“It’s like you’re Spiderman and you’re pushing the body to do crazy things that you didn’t think you could do. Here you are running up a ten-foot wall, kicking off another wall, jumping off another thing and swinging around. That’s what it was for me, it’s like superpowers.”

Banzer says all you really need to do parkour is a good pair of running shoes, and you can do it with or without a gym, but an indoor parkour facility provides a space for people to learn and practice the sport in a safe way.

“Having a space like this allows you to really practice parkour, put things together and connect some lines and do it all in a safer environment than just jumping straight outside on asphalt and concrete.”

Banzer says he was so motivated to open a parkour gym because he wanted to be active and have fun but knew others might benefit from it as well.

“I wanted to have a place where I could stay fit because health is really important to me but I knew I wouldn’t last working out non-stop at a gym because it would bore me,” says Banzer. “With parkour you’re pretty much just playing and you’re climbing things and goofing around like a child which doesn’t feel like exercise but by the end of it you’re wrecked.”

He says in the two-months since he’s opened his doors he's received a lot of positive feedback from folks who’ve been saying “we needed something like this in the community and that kids are going to love it."

“The older ones are hesitant but as we are starting to get more adults in here they are starting to realize it is fun and it’s easier than its sounds. You don’t have to do the big crazy stuff you can just start with the small things,” says Banzer.

“It’s all about what you can do and making sure you have control over your body and keeping your body conditioned as you age.”

He says his biggest goal for Olympus Freerunning is to build a huge parkour community in Prince George and host tournaments and events to raise money for charity.

“My hope is that if I can get a big enough parkour community in Prince George we can do a whole bunch of fundraising events and inspire the city to set up an outdoor parkour park for people in the summertime.”

Olympus Freerunning is located at 1733 Nicholson St. and you can find more info about the gym on its website.