Nepalese man flips for Akron
Latest Guinness record attempt is tribute to city
In a village not far from Mount Everest in eastern Nepal, images of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan inspired young Dinesh Sunar to attempt their superhuman stunts.
His skills developed as he grew older — he’s broken five Guinness World Records for gymnastic feats from 2017 to 2021. While one record has since been beaten, he continues to hold four records and is awaiting certification he broke another record this week.
His most recent record to be certified was for the most standing, twisting backflips in 30 seconds. He did a dozen at the Sunshine Taekwondo Academy on Brittain Road in March 2021.
It took about a year for fame to catch up with him locally, as Akron Mayor Daniel Horrigan pronounced April 21, 2022, as Dinesh Sunar Parkour Day in his honor.
His latest record attempt was Wednesday, when he claimed 14 backflips with a jump rope in 30 seconds. He expects it will take a couple of months for that record to be certified.
That attempt also took place in Akron, in tribute to the city he’s hoping to settle in once his application for permanent U.S. residency is approved.
“I want to represent Akron,” Sunar said, seeking precise words to express himself in newly learned English.
“Akron is a beautiful city with a lot of opportunity for immigrants,” he added. “I want to earn many records for Akron and my home country of Nepal. I want to do something good ... inspiring youth, community, society. I have a good present to offer.”
Finding a new home
While his green card application is being considered, Sunar has been staying with his sister-in-law, Hemanta Khati, vice president of the Greater Akron Hindu Sewa Samittee, a nonprofit organization that serves the Bhutanesenepalese community in Summit County.
She assists with translation for Sunar, who has been in the United States for about 18 months.
Khati and her parents, all former refugees, were granted asylum in the United States about 11 years ago. They are among nearly 100,000 Nepali-speaking people from Bhutan who had lived as refugees in neighboring Nepal for up to 20 years before an international resettlement program was established.
According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, about 85,000 Nepali refugees have been granted asylum in the United States. Khati said about 3,500 live in the Greater Akron area.
Though not a refugee himself, Sunar, 29, is hoping permanent residency will enable him to bring his wife, Sharmila, and his son, Debit, to the United States as well.
For the past year, his focus has been on parkour, taekwondo and breaking another record.
“He has talent,” said Khati, now a U.S. citizen. She works in home health care and volunteers with the Samittee.
“We are lucky to be here in the United States,” she said.
Record-breaking fame
Sunar is already a celebrity in Nepal, where media have covered his accomplishments. One publication referred to him as the country’s “Parkour King.”
An internet search of his name brings a flood of publicity, including documentation
of his Guinness records.
His records stem directly from his skill at parkour, defined as the art of moving from point to point, often over obstacles, in as fluid a manner as possible.
With amazing movie stunts for examples, he started jumping and doing somersaults when he was about 7 and was told by his parents to stop.
However, Sunar said he continued practicing out of sight with friends, rolling and moving through terrain and finding obstacles in his village on which to train. He said he never realized he was doing parkour.
Eventually, people were impressed with his skill and an officer with Nepal’s Armed Police Force recruited him to serve as a constable in Kathmandu, where he joined the organization’s gymnastics
team.
“They said that he is like a flying man,” Khati said.
Sunar went on in 2017 to break two Guinness records in Kathmandu: Most backward somersaults off a wall in 30 seconds (16) and most twisting backflips off a wall in one minute (18). He also landed jobs in locally produced films as a stuntman and earned medals in national competitions.
Also in 2017, the World Parkour and Freerunning Federation invited him to compete in its 2018 world championships.
In 2019, he earned a Guinness record for most twisting backflips off a wall in 30 seconds (12), also in Kathmandu.
Sunar made his first visit to the United States from late 2019 through early 2020 as part of a Nepalese media team auditioning for America’s Got Talent television show.
During that time, he earned the Guinness record for most backward somersaults on a trampoline in one hour (460). Unfortunately for Sunar, that record was eclipsed in August 2020 by Austrian Finn Pirmin Pilz, who did 1,064, according to Guinness.
After spending about a year in Nepal, Sunar returned to the United States and has been staying in Cuyahoga Falls.
Sunar said he would like to break more records and somehow get featured on Netflix, but in the long term, he wants to open a school where he can teach others parkour and fitness.
Khati explained his philosophy. “Five gyms are better than one hospital because they keep more people healthier,” she said.
Eric Marotta can be reached at 330541-9433 or emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Marottaeric.