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Parkour Archive: Manpower


Manpower is without a doubt the most iconic gap in parkour, named for the business that used to be in the building, people have travelled from all over the world to Evry, France to jump and flip it, we've curated a timeline of all the progressions of the gap over the years.


Dates and names are based on when videos are uploaded and names provided on social media.


  • 1998 - First recorded footage of David Belle jumping Manpower, he has said that he had done Manpower before this but it was never filmed until the famous 'Speed Air man' video. - You can see it at 1:31 in the video https://youtu.be/kWJHSyjVMY8


  • August 2009 - Peter Spoelma does the first standing jump, these days it's common for athletes to jump it standing but before this it had only ever been done as a running jump. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPacE1tjLiY


  • June 2013 - Kevin Fluri becomes the first person to frontflip the gap - You can see it at 0:37 in the video



  • October 2017 - Harry Davies does the first standing sideflip over the gap - You can see it at 11:20 in the video https://youtu.be/mkiVs2Z-4s0





  • August 2020 - First time Manpower is done from the lower level of the staircase - I can't find an original upload or even a name of who did it, but it can be seen at 11:08 in this mini documentary on Manpower from JimmyTheGiant, the Instagram account credited no longer seems to exist https://youtu.be/TPgSonoBWQk?t=669



If there is progressions of Manpower that we've missed or any footage we've not linked to then let us know in the comments below.