Parents provide safety net for extreme athletes

Practitioners of parkour, BMX and longboarding rely on family support. Yang Zekun reports.

Although Zhang Ning's son is famous in the world of parkour in China, the father rarely mentions his boy's skills and achievements to colleagues and friends.

Instead, his fervent wish is that 27-year-old Zhang Yunpeng, who holds a Guinness World Record in the sport－in which practitioners, or "tracers", move through complex environments by running, climbing and jumping without equipment－stays safe during competitions.

Over the past three decades, extreme sports have attracted tens of thousands of participants, but that has led to enormous pressure on the parents of these fearless young people, who are usually the family's only child.

Whenever Zhang Ning knows his son is participating in a parkour competition or exhibition, he and his wife become extremely nervous because they worry about the many uncontrollable factors of the sport that could lead to injuries.

The father, from Datong, Shanxi province, wanted his son to finish undergraduate studies, irrespective of whether that was in the liberal arts or sciences, and then find a stable job like other people's children. He certainly didn't view sports as a good career choice.