Above: The three acrobatic wingsuit teams pose in the loading area before a competition jump. Photo by Anthony Armendariz.
After the conclusion of CP Nationals at Skydive Paraclete XP in Raeford, North Carolina, the competition shifted to Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois. The first discipline in the sky was wingsuit flying, and both the acrobatic and performance events completed over the last four days.
In wingsuit flying-performance, competitors earn medals in three separate events—speed, distance and time. After each of these is complete, those jumps (a total of nine) determine an overall podium of medalists. Acrobatic wingsuit flying is much different, with each team consisting of three wingsuiters (two performers and a video flyer), who try to score as many points as possible in their creative free routines and compulsory rounds.
In the performance event, Alexey Galda earned the gold medal in both distance and time, which was enough to also bring home the overall gold. In the speed event, however, Danny White finished atop the standings to earn gold. FlatSpin (Jeffrey Harrigan, Nicholas Maieritsch and Travis Mickle) finished first overall in the acrobatic event.
Two competitors set Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and USPA records during the competition, with Galda setting a new Illinois state mark for greatest horizontal distance. Amelia Dunaway set three female records during her performance jumps, including FAI North American records for greatest horizontal distance and longest time, as well as an Illinois state record for fastest speed.
The full podium results are below, and full scoreboards can be found at intimescoring.com.
Wingsuit-Performance | Overall
Gold—Alexey Galda
Silver—Joe Ridler
Bronze—Andrew Kenny
Wingsuit-Performance | Distance
Gold—Alexey Galda
Silver—Andrew Kenny
Bronze—Joe Ridler
Wingsuit-Performance | Speed
Gold—Danny White
Guest—Ali Asker
Silver—Joe Ridler
Bronze—Andrew Kenny
Wingsuit-Performance | Time
Gold—Alexey Galda
Silver—Joe Ridler
Bronze—Andrew Kenny
Wingsuit-Acrobatic
Gold—FlatSpin
(Jeffrey Harrigan, Nicholas Maieritsch, Travis Mickle)
Silver— Pocotó
(Khoren Mirzakhanian, Julia Morgan, Kevin Su)
Bronze—The Tough Tampons
(Elizabeth Brott, Rebecca Jordan, Cora Masson)