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While the death total from parkour and free running is ambiguous, there are plenty of examples of people falling hundreds of feet to a gruesome death. Especially in Russia.
In July 2013, Russian Pavel Kishin tried to take a photo of himself doing a backflip on a 3-foot wide ledge on top of an apartment building. He lost his footing and fell nearly 200 feet to his death. Another unnamed 17-year-old Russian fell six stories to his death while attempting to jump from one rooftop to another during a parkour show in Turkey’s capital Ankara.
A third Russian parkour artist nearly joined them recently after a free run that went nearly fatally awry.
Sergey Shorokhov posted a video to his Instagram that features him doing crazy shit on top of a 25-story building in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The caption:
Yesterday I was in the arms of death and was born a second time. Got scars on my stomach and fingers. 25 years, 25th floor, 10 seconds over death. An experience that will last a lifetime. Zlat @goldenzadrot saved me. The electric current tried to throw me down but world still need me I feel. My mission isn’t over yet. But I’m glad we met face-to-face, Death. Because happiness in me became much more. Thank you for this experience. Let’s see how the world responds to my madness. 😅😉
Here is the full video:
Live wire is no joke. Former parkour enthusiast David Harrison died in a Miami hospital burn unit a month after he touched a live power line when he tried to walk on a power pole in West Palm Beach. He suffered burns on over 80% of his body. He was just 20 years old.
Something tells me that despite tasting death, Sergey has no plans of stopping.