USPA awarded Tom Falzone, D-11477, the USPA Gold Medal for Meritorious Service in December, “For four decades of excellence as a competitor and coach, and for inspiring and mentoring countless jumpers, in particular the future Army officers of the West Point Parachute Team,” The medal, which USPA established in 1977 and the board of directors awards each year, goes to “outstanding USPA members who, by their efforts over a period of years, have made significant contributions to the skydiving community.”

Falzone received his award at the 2024 USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Skydive City Zephyrhills, in Florida. It was fitting that it happened at this competition, where he has been a fixture at the event for nearly two decades, spending the past 19 years as head coach of the Black Knights, the parachuting team of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. During that time, the team has won 112 gold, 54 silver and 70 bronze medals and Falzone has overseen 90,000 cadet jumps with just a single injury. He hasn’t just been a familiar face to army cadets during that time, either: Falzone has been a resource for knowledge for all young skydivers at the event, from all branches of the military and civilians alike.

His own competitive career was just as impressive. After surviving one of the worst airplane incidents in skydiving history, in 1992 at Skydive Perris in California, Falzone and the remainder of his team still competed at that year’s national championships, winning bronze medals in 4-way formation skydiving and golds in 20-way. He accumulated seven gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze medals on the national stage, and in 1998 began competing with the Golden Knights, which he would continue for the next decade.

His true passion, however, lay in teaching. He helped coach several 4-way teams to international medals, including Germany (Bronze, 1992), Holland (Silver, 1994), Italy (Gold, 1996) and Spain (Silver, 2002). And for nearly 20 years, any young and aspiring jumper that has gone through West Point has had Falzone to emulate and learn from.

USPA Competition Chair Jim Rees was joined by Meet Director (and long time competitor and friend) Bill Wenger to present Falzone with his gold medal at the event’s awards banquet on New Year’s Day.