Antananarivo is the capital city of Madagascar,
located just in the center of the big island,
in the Hauts Plateaux region.
The Parkour Mada association was created around 2008
And since, its goal is to promote Parkour in Madagascar,
so to publicize and make the sport known.
Parkour has always been a lifestyle.
You have total freedom of movement,
you don't need equipment, just your body.
The wind, the speed and all, that's the sensation.
Initially Parkour is a sort of training,
consisting in getting your body used to move from one place to another,
in a complicated environment.
Then more people discovered Parkour,
they made derivatives,
adding freestyle figures like flips and so on.
And it gave birth to freerunning.
For me, Parkour is what you do when you're chased by a mad dog
That's it.
The feeling of being able to move everywhere,
it's completely unique, I myself cannot stop practising.
It's like a drug.
What I do prefer, I think it's running.
I spend my time running around, since I'm a child
I run all the time.
But I also really like to climb everywhere.
I try to find new challenges.
I need to know for example, if I could do that or that,
move from there to there, in the shorter amound of time.
And that's amazing.
There is also the freedom,
doing things that others cannot,
that's something I really enjoy.
Climbing a building,
doing some crazy stuff that no one else would do, that's so cool.
What I'm feeling is a complete freedom,
the sensation of the wind on your body when you're running.
the sensation when you're high on top of something,
you're looking down, and the ground is 4 meters below you.
And you say to yourself : wow.
Parkour Mada current projects includes the opening of a training center,
in a gymnasium, with all the required equipments : tatamis, mattresses and son on,
so we can train without injuries.
We would also like to fly malagasy athletes
to represent Madagascar in Parkour international competitions,
such as the Redbull Art of Motion,
which is one of the most known freerunning competition.
Most of the association's members are young people,
and they got difficulties, they want to come and participate to training sessions,
but they always got this problem of money, and transportation cost.
Traffic is Antananarivo is complicated.
It's one of the world's most jammed cities,
and you can easily be blocked for several hours in the jams.
The only affordable way of transportation are buses.
Parkour practitioners can take up to several hours of transportation and multiples buses to reach the spots.
It gets quickly expensive, and some of the practitioners cannot afford it.
So the association is then helping those who cannot afford the bus.
There are no buses from Hatrialoa to Ankatso.
It took me like 2.5 hours. Cela m'a pris 2 heures 30.
So, it took me around 2 hours.
I took 2 buses, then walked a bit until the spot.
And it took me around 1.5 hours
As any extreme sport, Parkour is a dangerous sport.
One can quickly slip or fall when doing a trick on concrete,
and the malagasy athletes do not have any social security nor health insurance policy,
and a small tour to the hospital can quickly cost several month's worth of salary.
Two years ago I had a really bad injury, I broke my right leg.
I twisted my leg. Je me suis retourné la jambe.
It took 5 months to recover. Cela a pris 5 mois à guérir.
Waste and debris on the spot. Ground was badly cleaned.
But I went anyway, did moves after moves.
And *tchak*, it cut my hand.
I jumped from a bridge one day,
I had a bad landing,
then I limped for weeks.
Parkour for me is everything,
it's my life.
I want to keep doing Parkour as long as I can run,
as long as I can I will do it.
People that train together tend to become a real family.
Parkour does not need anything,
but gave us so much in return,
friends, a sport, a leisure activity,
an education and a philosophy,
how to surpass yourself and another future.
