In the new episode of his show Nayda in Hollywood, journalist Simo Benbachir welcomed Mohammed Didi Alaoui, world champion of Parkour, who immigrated to Hollywood from Oujda to realize his American dream.
Didi Alaoui spoke to Simo about Parkour, an acrobatic sport discipline that originated in France and which allows people to overcome urban or natural obstacles with fast and agile body movements without the help of equipment. Having developed nowadays, this discipline is called “free running”. It includes gymnastics, tricking, Taekwondo and parkour.
Alaoui explained that he discovered this sport through a French film he saw in 2008. He was amazed by it and began to imitate what he had seen, before starting to look for where he could practice it. “I started playing the sport in the city of Oujda, before going to several other Moroccan cities, including Casablanca and Tangiers, to practice it. But I only had the opportunity to practice it professionally when I went to Denmark where I found training rooms available. So I took courses at a specialized institute for nine months, before I received an offer to work as a teacher at the same institute. I spent two years there before moving to the United States of America.
Alaoui managed to win the world championship in the sport at the international competition held in Italy. “My dream was to participate and win this competition. I already participated in 2015 and 2017, but I couldn’t win the title. But with each participation, I trained well until I was finally able to realize my dream and win in a well-deserved way, I think, especially after winning the African and Arab World Championship, held in Qatar, and I noticed that my level was higher than that of participants from other Arab countries,” he said.
Regarding the support of his family, especially since Parkour is one of the most dangerous sports, Alaoui said that his family has always been at his side since he decided to embark on a professional career. His parents never prevented him from playing the sport as long as his school results were satisfying, even if he sometimes came home with bruises and injuries.
The Moroccan champion, who teaches the sport in Los Angeles while waiting to earn himself a role as a stuntman in an American film, complains the lack of institutes, professional gyms or associations specializing in the sport in Morocco, even though he was allowed to train at police institutes in the United States.”There are Moroccans who are well trained and good at it, but they can’t find anyone to help them to continue on that path,” he told Simo.
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