IPF Co-Founder/Secretary General David Thompson and ICTSG (International Council of Traditional Sports and Games) representative Shammi Rana ( Secretary General of International Council of Traditional Sports and Games -ICTSG- and Rapporteur of Adhoc Advisory Committee of Traditional Sports and Games, UNESCO ) met to discuss future initiatives and partnerships between the two organizations, including co-hosting ICTSG’s upcoming meeting in June of 2020 where 5-7 Sports Ministers will be in attendance and a Parkour information and development event will be presented by IPF. IPF, established in 2014, applied for membership to Sport Accord in 2014 and co-founders David Thompson & Victor Bevine, and IPF board member Ryan Doyle (Three time Parkour World Champion, star of MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge, and broadcast host of WFPF’S World Parkour Championship Mardin, Turkey 2018) also attended the Sport Accord- GAISF membership workshop in 2017 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they met with Shammi Rana. IPF is a 501c3 Non-Profit that creates Parkour national governing bodies around the world, partners with other sport organizations, and promotes global initiatives both social and for sport.

Among the topics discussed by Mr. Thompson and Mr. Rana were:

• Co-hosting the upcoming ICTSG meeting in Los Angeles California USA in the month of June 2020.
• The inclusion of IPF- International Parkour Federation and Parkour in the 1st Global Traditional Sports and Games event, in cooperation with ICTSG.
• The upcoming launch and development of the IPF Indigenous Peoples initiative. The initiative will be a Parkour and Natural Movement sports initiative in cooperation with ICTSG under auspices of International Parkour Federation.
• Fundraising efforts of IPF’s #PeaceThroughParkour Global Education Initiative and IPF’s #PeaceAndPlay Initiative and IPF strategy to grow these initiatives globally.
• IPF’s Gender Equity – Women’s Empowerment Initiative.
• IPF’s new status as a Guidestar member: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/47-2944977

IPF also discussed future WFPF World Parkour Championship plans and possible host countries and locations with Mr. Rana. IPF presented the WFPF World Parkour Championship Mardin, Turkey in 2018 which was viewed by people in every continent around the world on television with a global viewing audience of 750 million households, as well millions more views and impressions on Facebook, Live-stream, and other internet outlets. https://worldparkourchampionship.com/

IPF also discussed future IPF International Congress locations with Mr. Rana. IPF held their first International Congress in 2018 Mardin, Turkey.

Mr. Thompson and Mr. Rana also discussed existing IPF #PeaceThroughParkour #PeaceAndPlay country initiatives as successful models for future Parkour Peace initiatives in other conflict regions around the world. One of those existing initiatives is Afghanistan’s “Afghan Parkour Society” (founded and lead by Qudrat Frotan) which works in cooperation with Afghanistan National Freerunning Parkour Federation (ANFPF) under the leadership of Mr. Zelgai Aslami (ANFPF President) https://www.facebook.com/afg.nfpf/ , and with IPF- International Parkour Federation. ANFPF is one of IPF’s biggest success stories with huge advances in development of Parkour organizations in the various provinces, Parkour education and certification, Parkour programs in schools and sports facilities, as well as regional and national championships in Afghanistan. IPF holds ANFPF up as an excellent example of what can be done with good leadership, with cooperation of non-Parkour professionals with an interest in Parkour, and with cooperation with other Parkour organizations such as Afghan Parkour Society.

IPF looks forward to it’s cooperation in the future with the ICTSG organization and Shammi Rana.