Photo above by Mike McGowan.
On Wednesday, October 26, after weeks of fierce but friendly competition between skydivers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Qatar, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA, the 2022 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Skydiving Championships at Skydive Arizona in Eloy came to a close. International Skydiving Commission President Gillian Rayner said, "It was fantastic to see so many flags tonight and hear so many national anthems," after watching the victorious teams stand proud representing their countries. The “Star Spangled Banner” rang out plenty of times, as the U.S. Team had strong performances across every discipline.
The following U.S. athletes came home with the title of World Champion:
Canopy Piloting Freestyle National Team: Curt Bartholomew, Travis Mills, Justin Price
Canopy Piloting Speed: Jason Sanders
Canopy Piloting Zone Accuracy: Jason Sanders
Wingsuit Performance Overall: Chris Geiler
Wingsuit Performance, Time: Alexey Galda
Wingsuit Performance National Team: Alexey Galda, Chris Geiler, Joe Ridler
Artistic Freestyle (Raija Kosonen Trophy): XP Ascend—Jason Brigmon and Jake Carlton
Speed National Team: Niklas Daniel, T.J. Landgren, Kyle Lobpries
Vertical Formation Skydiving (Fiona McEachern Trophy): SDC Core—Johnny Gunn, Dustin Hanks, Sam Lendle, Rook Nelson, Jason Russell, Stephanie Strange
8-Way Formation Skydiving (Ottley Sword, 8-Way): XP8— Jeana Billings, Elliot Byrd, John D’Annunzio, Tim D’Annunzio, Matt Davidson, Craig Girard, Andrew Happick, Michelle Karamon, Brian Krause, Eliana Rodriguez, Kirk Verner
4-Way Formation Skydiving (Ottley Sword, 4-Way): Arizona Airspeed— Brendan Haddon, Niklas Hemlin, Christopher Kuhlmann, Mikhail Markine, Joseph Marshall, Kirk Verner
Full scoreboards are available at results.worldskydiving.org, and an in-depth article will appear in the December issue of Parachutist.
For more information about the U.S. Parachute Team or to support your favorite athletes, visit usparachuteteam.org.
Photo by Javier Ortiz.