29-year-old Australian parkour athlete Dominic Di Tommaso became the first person to freerun at the Sydney Opera House, turning the world-famous landmark into his own parkour playground. A series of tricks, jumps, rolls, and flips have culminated in the world’s first-ever backflip on top of the iconic sails.
It is every freerunner’s dream to take on a major, iconic landmark. To be able to do exactly that in my hometown, at the phenomenal Sydney Opera House, was a dream I have had since I started freerunning. It more than lived up to my expectations, it blew them out of the water. The interesting architecture was such a great space to work with for movement and physical challenges.
A team of professional video makers and parkour athletes have helped Dominic to choreograph stunts and tricks so he could use the space of Opera House to the fullest. The filming process took three days and the result will have everyone in awe.
I really went ‘full thought mode’ on the space and tried to come up with the best possible outcome—I even brought in some members of the parkour community to work as my team creatively and help assist with those thoughts and visions. As a community, we always work together and I’m really stoked on it, and think we came up with the best possible outcome for each spot using the minds we had there.
The Sydney Opera House is not the only iconic site that was freerun by Dominico. He has already performed stunts on the Pyramids of Egypt, the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and Bruges rooftops in Belgium.
Dominico started freerunning back in 2007 and after 5 years of training, he began gaining traction as he was participating in various events across Thailand and Europe. Shortly after, Red Bull came on board as a sponsor. Now he has 1.7mn followers on Instagram and worldwide fame. It’s hard to imagine that before he turned to parkour, Dominico had a background in ballet and figure skating and a full-time job as a garbage man.
I love freerunning, it gives me an outlet for my passion in movement without the restrictions or guidelines I found in other organized sports. It excites me to know that the possibilities are seemingly endless. I’m so happy to be a part of the community that advocates support and progression for each and every freerunner involved.
