Ultimate Parkour Challenge
Ultimate Parkour Challenge is a mini-series that premiered on October 22, 2009 on MTV featuring the six of the top parkour and freerunning competitors from around the world expressing their styles against each other in a series of themed challenges filmed in California. The series is hosted by freestyle motocross and parkour enthusiast Andy Bell, and stylish freerunner/martial artist Travis Wong. The first season's episodes aired on Thursdays at 10 pm EST on MTV with repeats airing on MTV2. While the second season's time slot moved to 11 pm EST.
Hosts
- Andy Bell: A former "Nitro Circus" FMX rider.
- Travis Wong: A former nationally ranked "forms and weapons" martial arts competitor.
2009-2010 Competitors
Competitor | Age | Hometown | Background | Parkour Team | Known For/Style | Achievements |
Pip Andersen | 19 | Taunton, England, UK | Parkour trickster | Urban Freeflow | Despite being one of the most skilled and strongest Parkour athletes in the world, he is known best for his sense of humor and clownish antics | *One of 8 featured Athletes in MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge, *Finalist in 2008 World Barclaycard Championships, *4th Place, 2007 World Freerunning Championships, *Appeared in a commercial for Swatch watches, Models for clothing and apparel companies |
Daniel Arroyo | 23 | Tampa, Florida | Freerunner | *One of 8 featured Athletes in MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge, *Achieved YouTube fame as the inventor of the "Cast Bomb", a very high-risk move | ||
King David | 26 | Las Vegas, Nevada | Freerunner | *Finalist, MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge, *Underground YouTube sensation, *Most respected in the U.S. Parkour community | ||
Ryan Doyle | 25 | Liverpool, England, UK | Martial Artist | Freerunner | Explosive corkscrew flips, spins, and other acrobatic moves harvested from a background as a renowned martial arts champion. | *1st Place, 2007 Redbull Art of Motion, the first ever international freerunning competition, *UK Martial Arts Tricking Champion for 4 years running, *Finalist, MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge, *Appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, *Appeared on Discovery Channel's Fight Science, *Appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show as Ellen DeGeneres' stunt double |
Daniel Ilabaca | 22 | Liverpool, England, UK | Freerunner | *1st Place in MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge, *Raced against a Ferrari on German TV and won, *Appeared in numerous commercials for Toyota, Mercedes, & KSwiss, *One of the most watched freerunners, over 30 million YouTube views to his credit | ||
Ben Jenkin | 19 | Blackburn, England, UK | Freerunner | Urban Freeflow | Nickname is "Jenx", a shortened version of his last name. Considered a protégé of fellow freerunner Daniel Ilabaca. Universally considered one of the next Parkour superstars. | *3rd Place, 2008 Barclaycard World Freerunning Championships, *Taught a Parkour workshop at Camp Woodward in summer 2009. |
Brian Orosco | 25 | San Francisco, California | Stuntman | Team Tempest | Nickname: "Nosole". His "superman flips" while freerunning a course. | Featured as one of 8 featured Athletes of the 2009 premiere season of MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge. *Competed on several of Japan's popular athletic TV series Ninja Warrior competition on G4. |
Tim Shieff | 21 | Derby, England, UK | Former professional breakdancer | Urban Freeflow | *1st Place, 2009 Barclaycard World Freerun Championships, *Finalist, MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge, *2nd Place, 2008 World Freerunning Championships, *2nd Place, 2009 Red Bull Art of Motion Championships, *Appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, *Featured in the NY Daily News, *Collected over 3.5 million YouTube views in the last six months | |
Mike Turner | 20 | Santa Barbara, California | Hollywood stuntman | This all-American, 6'2" former soccer player is famous for his incredible "ups", high jumps, athleticism, and fantastic dexterity. | *One of 8 featured athletes in MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge, *Master Instructor of the WFPF/Equinox Fitness Parkour Program, *Appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon | |
Oleg Vorslav | 22 | Daugavpils, Latvia | Internet sensation | *Featured dancer and stuntman in Madonna's "Jump" music video, *Also performed with the pop superstar on her globetrotting world tour, *Most viewed parkour video "ever"—his "Russian Climber" had collected over 50 million views |