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Writer's pictureAdam Dore

Parkour Archive: Manpower

Updated: Oct 6


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.


The dates given are based on when the videos were uploaded, so it's possible that some of these are actually the first to be uploaded and not necessarily the first time it was done, but it's all we have to go on. The names provided are also just based on what we can find on social media.


  • 1998 - First recorded footage of David Belle jumping Manpower, he has said that he had done the jump 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





  • October 2017 - Harry Davies does the first standing sideflip over the gap - You can see it at 11:20 in this 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 are any progressions of Manpower that we've missed or any footage we've not linked to then let us know in the comments below.




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Ply Bateman
Ply Bateman
Apr 23

I'm doing a school project on manpower, and I just found a video of some guy on Facebook doing the jump with a hurdle and a flip, and its from august 2019. Doesn't that make him the first to hurdle manpower, even before Max Ward?

Here's the video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1408640059301813

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Adam Dore
Adam Dore
Oct 06
Replying to

I'm referring to a 'true' hurdle for lack of a better word, in that it's a jump and not a flip. But The video you linked is possibly the first time it was flipped without using the ledge as a take off so I've added it to the list.

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