The 4th Parkour on the Highest Ladder will be held on November 4 and 5 at the Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie. Sixty-six top parkour athletes from 18 countries around the world will compete in the three major events of men's speed, men's freestyle, and women's freestyle on the 999-step stairway known as "the world's most challenging parkour course."

A competitor competes in the speed event during the 2024 Parkour on the Highest Ladder at the Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area. (File photo/Yang Huafeng)

After three editions, the Parkour on the Highest Ladder has become one of the world's best-known parkour events. The course is set on the 999-step staircase leading up to the iconic Tianmen Cave, starting at the cave entrance and extending downward along the narrow, steep mountain trail to the Visitor Square. With a total length of nearly 300 meters and a vertical drop of approximately 150 meters (nearly 50 stories high), the course features five gentle sections and four steep sections, with an average slope of 45 degrees. A total of 108 sets of props are placed along the steps as obstacles. The combination of steepness, narrowness, a high vertical drop, and dense obstacles along continuous downhills sharply increases the intensity of each race.

This year's competition features the largest number of participating countries and the highest level of international participation in the event's history. Of the 66 competitors, 47 are foreign athletes. The participants were rigorously selected from the national teams competing in the Parkour World Cup, and the lineup includes the world record holder in parkour speed racing as well as several top-ranked athletes. All international athletes were selected through their respective national championships and are representing their countries in the competition.

This edition features three competition events: men's speed, men's freestyle, and women's freestyle. It follows the latest 2026 World Gymnastics competition rules, under which both the speed and freestyle events have eliminated the second-chance option, truly ensuring that "one run decides the outcome." In the speed preliminaries, each athlete has only one chance and the 24 fastest competitors advance to the finals; in the freestyle event, the top 16 men and the top six women advance to the finals.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: Chinanews