ALEXANDER DHUL

QARNAIN– Tajikistan
President FPFTajikistan – the national governing body for Parkour/Freerunning and recognized by the Tajikistan National Olympic Committee

I was born on December 9th, 1992, on a train from Dushanbe to Moscow during the time of the civil war. My mother and my uncle were among the lucky ones that managed to escape at the time. Food was scarce, winters were cold so we had to run. My one true support and role model for me in the world was my grandfather. A world champion in freestyle judo, he always encouraged me to be the best I could be. When I was 9, my grandfather died, and his son, my uncle became the head of the family. Rather than support me, he preferred to tell me I wasn’t good enough, strong enough, agile enough to become a wrestler like my grandfather. I tried, and I tried, but to him I was never good enough, and so I lost faith in myself as well. As a kid I used to love superhero movies, especially spider-man, and I started jumping and trying to imitate him. I found out about Parkour after watching DISTRICT B-13, and THE YAMAKASI. Then, in 2005, a good friend of mine came and encouraged me to get to start training parkour with him. I was intrigued and started learning more about it as I began to train with my friend. We discovered other guys who were into parkour but didn’t train and we encouraged them to train with us and help each other to grow and become stronger. Slowly I found my confidence again. After seven years of training, I was a different person and I recognized it was time for me to give back and and to help others find what I found in parkour. So, I decided to organize an official parkour community. I discovered three different parkour groups in Tajikistan, and as I tried to bring them together, they all told me to abandon the idea of a federation and gym in Tajikistan, that there were no resources, and that it would never work. I was so concerned that maybe they were right, and that perhaps they were right, that parkour would never achieve recognition in Tajikistan. But I never gave up however and eventually I found WFPF and IPF who listened and encouraged my dreams. I am especially grateful to Mr.Victor President of IPF and Co-Founder of WFPF who first supported the idea of a federation in Tajikistan. I am proud and honored to have been put in charge of the Tajik federation. In July 2017 I was invited to Bangkok for a WFPF Teacher Certification, and when I mentioned that I didn’t have the the money to go, I was given a scholarship by WFPF. I am so thankful and forever grateful for all of the opportunities that IPF/WFPF gave me at a crucial time, which put me on the right track and may have saved my life.