As you might already know, women's gymnastics is made up of the events vault, floor exercise, uneven bars and balance beam. Men's gymnastics consists of floor exercise, pommel horse, vault, rings, parallel bars and high bar.
Parkour on the other hand, has a different physical philosophy. Because urban obstacles are not set as in gymnastics, the athlete never knows exactly what movements will be needed to clear the terrain in the smallest amount of time. In addition, there are no set moves as there are in gymnastics. There are however, several groups of movements that the parkour practicioner uses, including jumping, rolls and landing.
Gymnastics has very set disciplines which athletes compete in. However, parkour has definite principles yet gives its athletes more freedom of expression. On this page, we give you several examples of gymnastics and parkour. Because gymnastics' attention tends towards women and parkour's towards men, we will begin with women's gymnastics examples, follow through to men's gymnastics and end with the exhiliration of parkour.
Balance is key for acrobats-- whether they have formal training like gymnasts or are largely self-taught like parkour athletes. Here is 2008 Olympic Champoion Shawn Johnson performing her winning routine on the balance beam.
Men's gymnastics have ovbious similarities to both women's gymnastics and the male-dominated discipline of parkour. See Diego Hypolito perform his award-winning routing of floor exercise below.
As you will see, parkour has several elements in common with the discipline of gymnastics, but currently is not a competitive sport. The mental focus of parkour hilights problem solving, independence and directness of physical exertion as a contrast to gymnastics.
As an illustration of how Parkour is thought of more as a way to get from one point to the next and solve problems quickly using one's body, please note the following video, a chase scene from Luc Besson's film Banlieue 13.