Design

This 12-Year-Old Parkour Athlete Will Amaze, Scare the Crap Out of You

Robbie Griffith is starting to get noticed in the urban sport, and it's easy to see why.

I will freely admit that Robbie Griffith is much cooler than I was at age 12. For me, a slammin' day in the seventh grade involved consuming Frosted Mini-Wheats while watching Animaniacs. Griffith, on the other hand, prefers to execute flawless tuck-and-rolls on punishing concrete and hurdle over the deep chasms between buildings.

Griffith, who goes by the street name "Wee Beastie," is the youngest-ever member of Parkour Generations, a London-based organization devoted to furthering the urban sport. He was accepted into the group last month as a trainee in the "Developing Athlete Programme," a mentoring gig that matches parkour prodigies with older, wiser and no doubt bruised-er free runners. Griffith, who sometimes wears a backpack to practice, is "an exceptional young man with real talent, passion and dedication to the discipline," writes Generations, "and we are sure he has a bright future on our mentoring programme and in parkour in general."