The leap into happiness

Created: 10/21/2022, 12:30 p.m

By: Nico-Marius Schmitz

Explosively on the move: Silke Sollfrank © Red Bull Content Pool

Silke Sollfrank found her passion in parkour.

Since then, the 25-year-old has been jumping around the world - and wants to inspire people to move.

Munich – Silke Sollfrank has always liked exercise.

rules rather less.

She started figure skating at the age of five – her big sister was the role model here – and soon she was doing cartwheels on the ice.

The father sent Sollfrank to gymnastics.

Her great talent was acknowledged there and she was registered for tournaments.

But it wasn't a success story.

According to the judges, Sollfrank's gymnastics were too sloppy: "I wanted to do cool stuff and jump around, not so meticulously make sure that it was done beautifully according to certain specifications." Sollfrank, who comes from Munich, was always unhappy at the competitions and cried every freestyle.

"It's just unhealthy," she says today, "a child shouldn't cry because of sport."

After the gymnastics, Sollfrank tried everything she could think of that sounded like fun.

Volleyball, Windsurfing, Softball, Skateboarding.

But the real passion then arose from a chance encounter.

"At one point a guy asked me if I did parkour because I was wearing such baggy pants.

The next day he showed me how it all works and explained the basics to me.”

After two weeks, Sollfrank was already training children.

Parkour and Sollfrank, it was love at first sight, as she says.

The sport is about moving with the power of your own body - mostly over obstacles.

There are no limits to creativity here.

“I tend to be more explosive and powerful.

I like to make light lines and make them look nice,” says Sollfrank.

Fixed structures or training plans play no role in parkour.

With Parkour we can live it up.

There is no one who says to you: So, on Thursday you only do wrestling," says the 25-year-old.

Of course, physical fitness and the right preparation still play an important role.

When landing, 13 times the body weight acts on the joints.

Long-term injuries can quickly occur.

“You have to do specific balancing training, compensate for imbalances, listen to your body,” says Sollfrank, who describes her body as a working tool that she has to keep in good shape.

If she has trained her legs in the gym, for example, she can often no longer judge her jumps because she jumps much further and lands somewhere else: "It's really crazy."

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Sollfrank can live from her sport.

Through workshops, commercials or participation in TV programs such as "Catch" or "Ninja Warrior".

There is also “Our House” from Deutsche Sporthilfe (see box on the right) – a grant for athletes who do not belong to any association.

Just recently, "Our House" organized a trip to Calabria for twelve athletes from the sports of parkour, wakeboard, BMX and skateboarding.

Sollfrank was there too.

It is the common challenge, the community atmosphere that she appreciates about her sport.

And of course the art of getting to know the body anew every day.

“There are lines where my body just moves.

I'm just making sure not to stop.

It's like a dance you've practiced."

Dances that also inspire more than 160,000 people who follow the athlete on Instagram.

Sollfrank wants to be a role model for young girls, after all she is a "little person in a male-dominated scene." Actually, she wants to be a role model for everyone, to inspire people to move.

By Nico Marius Schmitz