Freerunning with DK @ Spinalonga

For Dimitris ‘DK’ Kyrsanidis it all began with a lost jacket. As a young boy, his passion was football and you could find him down at the football pitch every day – that is, until a group of guys were looking for a lost jacket. These guys were also ‘running and jumping around’ he remembered.

“I helped them find their jacket, and when they asked how they could ‘repay’ me, I told them I wanted to learn what they were doing. The guy said ‘OK’ then he took off running and jumping. I ran after him and, after that, I never touched a football again,” DK said. This fateful day became the day DK began parkour and freerunning.

Suddenly, “everything, everywhere, and every time I went out, I was in my playground.”

Despite the world being his playground, the process of becoming a pro freerunner required a whole lot more than going out and running around. It required slowing down and listening to his body, it required focus, and it required overcoming both literal and figurative obstacles.

I found everything in freerunning and I started making goals, trying new things and setting goals.

And DK’s accomplished quite a lot in a blink of an eye. In just a few years, he’s gone from that young boy looking for a jacket to a sponsored athlete with a packed travelling schedule, serving as an inspiration for people around the world. Now that he’s taken up freerunning full time, DK wants to see his sport become as big as skateboarding.

This is what’s brought him to the small Greek island of Spinalonga. As a native Greek, the lepers of Spinalonga, who lived on the small island during the early half of the 20th century, inspired DK. “They didn’t give up, even if hope was vanishing [on Spinalonga],” he said. “They didn’t give up and so they were free. And I’m free in my freerunning.”