Let’s meet Erika, third place in Speed Highlining in 2022:

• Name: Erika Sedlacek de Almeida
• Age: 30 years old
• Nationality: Brasilian

Erika is part of the brasilian crew named ‘Nova Geração’, based in Rio de Janeiro. She’s been practicing slacklining for 5 year but she trained speedlining especially before the Bop Games competition in the Mineirão Stadium, in Minas Gerais.

“I hope this year more competitions will take place in Brasil, to keep our beautiful sport growing. And I also hope to have more opportunities to be part of competitions around the world, so I can meet and exchange with wonderful people and cultures. Lots of highline for us all! <3”
Valeu Erika!

On the second place, we have Annalisa!

• Name: Annalisa Casiraghi
• Age: 26 years old
• Nationality: Italian

Annalisa started slacklining back in the 2013, with the Slackline Milano crew, in Italy. She’s now sponsored by Spider Slacklines and she’s one of the strongest athletes in Italy. Here’s what she told us: “I like speedline because make me feel free. It was great to be able to participate in Laax and see people running so fast and the community so supportive. So much motivation and the desire to learn more about going fast on the line :)”

Congratulations Lizzie and good luck for the next year!

Let’s start from the third place, as usual, where we have our joungest athete for speed highlining, Sascha!

• Name: Sascha Grill
• Age: 21 years old
• Nationality: German

Sascha is sponsored by Raed Slacklines and he’s an allround athlete with a high level both in freestyle and in speed highlining. He started slacklining 5 years ago, when he was very young: “I didn’t have that many opportunities to highline and I was happy if I could do it once a month, but now I’m often on the line, almost every day!”.

“2022 was a great highline year for me” he told us “I was part of the first highline world championship in LAAX and I performed the first time on a highline in a real show, i further had some other nice competitions and learned a lot of new tricks on the line. I’m really excited for what the next years will bring, I definitely will try to keep pushing and always give my best!”

Congratulation Sascha! Best wishes for 2023!

And the winner, in the male category, for 2022, is Benoit!

• Name: Benoit Humm
• Age: 27 years old
• Nationality: French

Benoit Brume is 27 Years old, he started to slackline 10 years ago. Specialized in huge lengths, Benoit Brume is always keen to create projects of several hundred meters. “I like to walk where the birds are flying”, he said. He also appreciates the logistical aspect of these expeditions which sometimes require teams of up to 20 people. He is an accomplished event organiser and a great cook: you’ll never go hungry at one of his events.  To follow his activities here‘s his website!

This year, he won the Laax World Championships. About next year? “In 2023, I aim to push and develop the speedline aspect of the sport. For that I will be organising a Speedline Worldcup which will happen between two castles in Ribeauvillé France 6-9th of July!”

Congratulations again, and good luck with the World Cup!

On the second place, we have Louise!

• Name: Louise Lenoble
• Age: 30 years old
• Nationality: French

Louise started freestyling back in 2017. “I am lucky to have witness the evolution of freestyle almost since the beginning“, she told us.
She is part of Bounce Kult team and a Slacktivity athlete, but also a Houle Douce performer (their highline circus performances are amazing!). “I improved my freestyle skills mostly between 2018 and 2021. The last year I have been focusing mainly on shows and performances for the public, in which I sometimes include freestyle tricks. My showlines are mostly under 30 meters, so it is way smaller than the regular 70 meters length where we practice freestyle on as a sport today ! It is really fun to adapt the tricks to shorter lines and include them in a show to create art with the highline!”
Congratulation Louise! Nice job!

Let’s start from the third place, we have Tim!

• Name: Tim Odermatt
• Age: 23 years old
• Nationality: Swiss

Tim started slacklining in 2018 and, he told us, “…I was fascinated by highline freestyle since the beginning, but really started to focus on it after the first Pandemic Open two years ago. Since then i joined the BounceKult and Slacktivity team and made freestyle an important part of my life.”
in 2022 he took part to the CCHF championship and the Pandemic Open, and …the Pandemic Invitational was my favorite competition so far, as it made me get out of my comfort zone and try some tricks that i would’ve never tried without it. It was amazing to train together with Deb Casimiro and Sam Volery and push each other to land their tricks and combos!”
and about the next year? “I hope there will be another edition of the Pandemic Invitational, that makes me learn new tricks and push myself to land hard combos!”
Allez Tim!

And the winner, in male category, for 2022, is Sakalomo!

• Name: David Palomo
• Age: 25 years old
• Nationality: Spanish

Also known as Sakalomo, David started slacklining 4 year ago and, he said “…each year is becoming more and more serious.” He lives in Canary Island, “Slackline Canarias is the association which promotes highlining on the island and that helped me provide one of the best training camps ever.”
“It’s crazy how time flies and things that used to be impossible now are the everyday routine. (…) the Highline Freestyle world has developed so much during this year that in each competition the level has been raised.”
Projects for the future?
“I hope next year the level keeps rising and we get to see this beautiful sport develop and taken to its maximum potential.
There is still a lot of work to be done and it’s up to all of us to make this sport grow so let’s do it together! You can start by bouncing and the rest will come ”
Thank you David for the effort you put into the freestyle highline world. Enjoy the next year and keep it up!

On the second place, we have Mao!

• Name: Mao Takebe
• Age: 17 years old
• Nationality: Japanese

Mao is tricklining for 7 year now, and she was the winner of the 2021 ranking list! Here’s the interview she gently gave us:

“Last year, I participated in four tournaments in Japan and the World Cup held in Germany.  It was my first overseas competition, so the World Cup in Germany was the most fun!  I was very happy that I was able to pull off a double front combo in the match!  This year, I want to improve even more than last year and get a good result.  I practice a lot for that!”
Good luck for the next year, then, Mao!

Let’s start from the third place, that goes to Shin!

• Name: Shin Kikukawa
• Age: 17 years old
• Nationality: Japanese

Shin is training tricklining for 4 years now. He told us that he liked a lot the competition in Germany, and that he wants to improve his style in tricklining this year. Enjoy your training and get ready for the next 2023 competition!

And the last 2022 winner, in male category, is Rikuto!

• Name: Rikuto Nakamura
• Age: 14 years old
• Nationality: Japanese

Rikuto is an iconic and very skilled trickliner that is now famous all over the world in the trickline scene.
He wrote us very nice words: “It’s been 8 years since I made a successful butt bounce on the slackline.  I recommend you practice all the skills you can now and become successful at them. After that, practice combos and new techniques! In 2022, many competitions will resume after the pandemic. Especially at the Trickline World Cup 2022 in Stuttgart, it was a great honor to participate, I was happy to win the competition. In 2023, I want to push tricklining even further and surprise viewers. Trickline is my treasure and indispensable. I would like to continue to challenge myself!”
Thank you again Rikuto for the amazing show you gave us, keep it up for the next year!

On the second place, we have Mio!

• Name: Mio Sudo
• Age: 22 years old
• Nationality: Japanese

It’s been 12 years since Mio started slacklining. That’s a lot!
In her training, she gives value to the practice of basic tricks.
Her goal for the next year is to join a contest where she could do a lot of runs and gives her best in the tournament.

And the last 2021 winner, in male category, Hendle!

• Name: Hendle Santos
• Age: 27 years old
• Nationality: Brasilian

Here’s what he told us:

“I’ve been practicing Slacklining for 7 years. My training is 3 times a week tricklining and once a week Highlining\Midlining. Sometimes we do physicals training to strengthen the body. This year there were important competitions, such as the Slackline South American Championship, which two took place online, and the Bop Games Championship, which is the largest multi-sport event in Latin America.
These two competitions were incredible with magnificent high level athletes. I  was very pleased to participate in these competitions.

I hope 2022 will be a year of many competitions, new athletes, new projects and growth for our slackline sport. I am very grateful to have known this sport that has changed me upside down.

What I like the most about tricklining is an incredible session of executing maneuvers, the lever you are in the air, the emotion of battling with friends and evolving together with both.
Trickline gives you the feeling of being alive and having a feeling of being inspired without even having jumped from a parachute.”

Mao Fuchigami is a 27 years old athlete from Japan, specialising in Trickline Aerial. She is the second ranked athlete in the  ISA slackline world ranking list list for this discipline together with Ayumi.

Mao takes her training seriously; she practices four to five times a week at the Slackline Park Gambader in Nagoya, an indoor bouldering and slacklining facility. She discovered slacklining 7 years ago at the bouldering gym. She found this experience very unique and challenging and started practicing ever since. She finds joy and fulfillment in landing a trick that once seemed unattainable.

Her goal is to one day be the world slackline champion. She is determined to create her own style and pushes herself to be the first woman to try new tricks.

Top Awards:

• SLACKLINE FREESTYLERS in FIELDSTYLE 2018 – Women’s 1st place
• Gibbon Cup 2019 Series #2 Game (female)  – 2nd place
• Gibbon Cup 2019 Series #1 Game (female) – 3rd place

At only 20 years old, Mio Sudo ranked 3rd in the trickline aerial discipline. Ten years ago, she discovered slacklining at her local climbing gym and then got into tricklining after meeting Yoshinobu Azuma.

Mio works hard to get to this level. She practices two to three times per week, often at NEXUS. She also follows a healthy food diet to stay in shape.

Mio has been competing since 2016. She ranked first in over seven contests, including the Globetrotter World Slackline Masters in 2016 and the ISI Women’s World Ranking in 2017. Her dream is to land as many tricks as possible while bringing originality to the sport.

Top Awards:

• GLOBETROTTER WORLD SLACKLINE MASTERS 2016 – 1st place
• ISI Women’s World Ranking 2017 – 1st place

At nearly 20 years old, Haruki is determined to bring slacklining to the olympics! Six years ago, someone told him there was a slackline at a temple in his hometown; he got curious and went to try. The difficulty of the sport and the frustration that comes with it pushed him to get better and he got hooked.

Haruki trains regularly; he found an indoor spot he can practice at around three times a week. He doesn’t have a coach or a trainer, just his determination.

When he was young, Haruki dreamed of playing baseball professionally. His goal today is to be a great slackliner and spread his love for this sport. He dreams of the day slacklining will be a popular sport, as common as baseball or soccer.

Top Awards:

• World Slackline Masters, Germany 2016 – 1st place
• Natural Games, Slacklining, France 2016 – 1st place
• X Games Slacklining Texas 2016 – 1st place
• Gopro Mountain Games 2017, USA – 1st place
• Riverrock 2018, USA – 1st place
• Outdoor Mix Festival, France 2019 – 2nd place
• Natural Games 2019, France – 2nd place
• Slackline 【FULLCOMBO】 World Cup 2019, Japan – 1st place
• Gibbon Nippon Open, Japan – multiple 1st places