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I've got no issues with free runners and parkour artists on principle. I think free running is an incredible display of athleticism and acrobatics, and it's engrossing to watch how these runners navigate the architecture around them like a character in a platforming video game. But there's a time and a place for everything, and an ancient site with millennia-old architecture isn't an ideal place to practice your parkour!
Still, that fact didn't deter one determined free runner from practicing his craft in the ancient Italian city of Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a history dating back several millennia. Unfortunately for this free runner, karma would catch up to him quick in the form of a nasty parkour fail!
Unfortunately, this free runner's stunt left a mark on the ancient city , and not in a good way. Clearly visible in the @dailymail 's clip, the runner's foot took out a stone jutting out from the wall, damaging the historic architecture. Karma came swiftly for the free runner, though, as the breakage sent him into a nasty fall that apparently injured his ankle. You mess with the bull, sometimes you get the horns.
Related: Urban Explorer Goes on a Haunting Tour of an Italian Ghost Town
Matera, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world. The first inhabited zones date back to the Palaeolithic era, and the city's famous rock-hewn settlements alone date back some 2,000-odd years. Even the constructed buildings of the historic city center where this stunt evidently took place date back centuries. As an Italian commenter and fellow parkour practitioner quoted in the Washington Post remarked, "that stone could have been there before the discovery of America or even earlier."
When Parkour Turns Problematic
The crew behind this parkour fail is a British parkour group called Team Phat, and this isn't the first time they've stirred up controversy for practicing their craft in an ancient city. According to the Washington Post , Team Phat was fined and banned from Venice, Italy , last year after performing a stunt where one member jumped into the canal from a building. The stunt drew the ire of Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who called the free runner an " idiot " on social media.
Unfortunately, that banishment seems to be the impetus for Team Phat's decision to visit Matera. Near the start of their full video uploaded to their YouTube channel, a Team Phat member explains: "As some of you know, we've been banned from Venice and we can never come back, so we've come to the closest thing to it." Evidently, these guys aren't the learning type.
Parkour in and of itself is a very cool sport, but its best practitioners know when to abstain for the sake of respecting and preserving a historic space. Still, perhaps Team Phat's second losing round with bad karma in Matera will finally drive the lesson home. Hey, one can dream, right?
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