Swiss gymnast Caryl Cordt-Moller is exuberant when talking about his favourite sport: “The most attractive thing about Parkour is the freedom that it gives you: you can train wherever you want, whenever you want and you can even do it barefoot if you feel like it! You just have to go outside and find some cool challenges. You can practice alone or with your friends. There is no rule. You can create your own movement, explore your body, push your limits, it’s incredible!”
Speed Parkour: high-speed acrobatics on ‘urban furniture’
Cordt-Moller has gone on to take Parkour far more seriously, and this has led to him being the current World Champion and World Cup Series winner in Speed Parkour, the gymnastic sport where competitors complete an urban-style obstacle course as fast as possible. It’s a sport that demands extreme agility and acrobatic skill; athletes in this sport train through learning and practicing a huge variety of gymnastic moves on what can loosely be called ‘urban furniture’. They get to be able to judge quite precisely what their body is capable of in challenging situations.
“The more you train, the more you know your body and its limits,” says Cordt-Moller. “I often tend to say that in this sport, 30% is physical and 70% is mental. Over the years you develop this kind of vision in front of each jump, and you know instinctively if you are capable of doing it or not. The most important thing is to know how to find the line between listening to your body and pushing your limits, that's what is tricky.”
Especially, that is, with the constant invention of new and faster moves, and new kinds of obstacle challenges on courses. In order to reduce the chance of athletes getting seriously injured on competition courses, some ‘Checkpoint Zones’ are being introduced, where to ensure safety, the athletes have to use specific routes over a particular set of obstacles.
World Championships: “I couldn’t have asked for a better setup”
The 2024 FIG (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) Parkour World Championships took place in the city of Kitakyushu, in Japan. “The Field of Play (the Parkour setup), as we call it, was probably one of the best I’ve ever seen in a FIG competition,” tells Cordt-Moller. “That one was particularly technical due to the arrangement of the blocks and the jumps, but it was for the best because I’m known to be a technical athlete. I couldn’t have asked for a better setup. It’s always a pleasure to be able to compete on a Field of Play that you like, it gives you confidence and makes you more comfortable.”
How close was the silver medallist to your winning time?
“It’s funny because the Top 6 results in Men’s Speed are always SO close. We’re talking about milliseconds! So yes, the silver medallist Andrea Consolini was VERY close to my time, but I managed to be faster and those milliseconds gave me the title of World Champion.”
“In a competition, whatever the standard, we usually don't know the Field of Play before we arrive there. We have training days during which we can get our bearings but before that we don't know anything,” Cordt-Moller explains. The winning time for covering the course can be less than 30 seconds.
Speed training and muscle strengthening
24-year-old Cordt-Moller started with Parkour at the age of 12. “I did a lot of different sports when I was younger such as Archery, Circus or Hockey. I think all those sports gave me skills that I can use today in Parkour: precision, acrobatics, stamina, etc.”
But to be at the very top, he realised eventually that some more specialised training was needed: “For a long time, I only did Parkour to improve my skills and technique. I trained as much as possible simply because I loved it. It was only recently that I decided to invest more specifically in speed training and muscle strengthening. It took me a while to understand the importance of this.”
“When I started competing internationally in FIG, I didn’t get better than 4th place. I was always very close to a podium placing – and I knew that if I made a little extra effort, I could win something! And that’s what happened. I started going to the gym several times a week and doing speed-specific training. I will continue to do this as long as my body can handle it and as long as the passion is still there. I am a very versatile athlete in terms of Parkour, but I still have a lot to improve physically, like my strength, explosiveness and flexibility. It takes time, but I work on it every day.”
Preparing for Chengdu
“Chengdu, I'm already training – of course! There are a few months left before The World Games, and I will have the opportunity to test my level on the FIG Parkour World Cup Series before that; we will see what 2025 has in store for me.”
“It will be my first time in China so I’m very excited! I’ll probably try to stay one or two more weeks to explore and visit the city, Chengdu looks amazing!”