Sébastien Foucan

Sébastien Foucan (born 27 May 1974; Paris, France) is a French freerunner of Guadeloupean descent. He is the founder of freerunning and he is considered to be one of the founders of parkour. He is regarded as the "head ambassador of parkour" in many countries. Well known for his views on the philosophy behind parkour and freerunning, he also stresses the need for proper training in the basics of both, not only for safety, but also for maintaining a positive public perception of the activities.

As creator of freerunning, Sebastien Foucan has stipulated the following core values of freerunning:

Follow your way; Always practise; Respect others in their practise; Be an inspiration for others; Be positive and look for positive environments; Respect your environment; Feel free to try other disciplines; Don't take it too seriously; The journey is more important than the goal; There is no good or bad, right or wrong, but what is important is what you learn from experiences through practise; Freerunning is not an elite discipline, but for people who love and continue to move; Channel your energy in a good way, a way to be better

He came to prominence in the United Kingdom after the showing of Mike Christie's Jump London documentary on Channel 4 in September 2003, and the subsequent documentary Jump Britain.

In addition to leading these programs, Sébastien also appears as Mollaka in the 21st James Bond film, Casino Royale. He spent three months in the Bahamas filming his role in the movie. A stunt double was used for portions of the opening chase scene. Besides this, Sébastien appears in the music video for Madonna's 2005 single, "Jump" and accompanied Madonna on her 2006 "Confessions Tour".

Foucan helped K-Swiss develop the Ariake, the first freerunning and parkour shoe in a line of 5 models. Only one of which is available on eBay right now on 22 Nov 2012. So the Ariake shoe information may be as correct as it may say in this information.

He also appeared in a trailer for the game Mirror's Edge.

Sébastien's latest role is in The Tournament, playing the role of assassin Anton Bogart.

It was revealed on 3 January 2012 that Sébastien Foucan would be among the fifteen celebrities to take part in the seventh series of "Dancing on Ice". On 19 February, he was eliminated in a double "Ultimate Skills" skate-off along with Heidi Range.

He is currently working with the upcoming clothing line from Jonny Wilkinson, and his first major Freerunning film since Casino Royale had its debut on 13 January 2012.

The name Freerunning (or free running) was coined during the filming of Jump London, as a way to present parkour to the English-speaking world. However, the term has evolved into semi-independent of parkour to represent Sebastien Foucan way of parkour which focuses on innovation and expression in movement as opposed to speed and effciency in Parkour thus making Sebastien Foucan the consequent founder of free running based on his way of parkour. Many misconceptions have come out of this, such as the statement that freerunning is a form of competitive streetgymnastics/streetacrobatics, when it in fact, was Sébastien Foucan's way to represent his own parkour evolution. In a video at his official YouTube channel he explains freerunning as:

“

Freerunning for me is my parkour evolution. I can't say anymore that I do parkour. Because if I want to be free to do flips, or let's say I'm learning breakdancing, and I would like to incoporate it into my parkour expression; Not to say: I am doing capoiera, breakdancing, parkour and anything else. Freerunning is the way I choose to name my own expression. Now people recognize parkour with flips (acrobatics) as freerunning. But only the action of doing parkour and flips is not freerunning. Its the action of adding more stuff into your expression. Thats the freerunning attitude.

”