Following the highly successful inaugural Championships in 2017, two stages in the FAI Swoop Freestyle World Championships will take place this year.
Swoop - Freestyle Canopy Piloting - is a high-impact, adrenalin-fuelled discipline, involving parachutists flying at high-speed across a body of water (“the Pond”) to score points based on style and execution.
To showcase this awe-inspiring spectator sport, the vibrant cities of Copenhagen (DEN) and San Diego (USA) will host the two international competition stages.
The athletes will jump out of a helicopter at 1500m/5000 ft altitude, then release the canopy before navigating towards the water surface. Starting 600m/2000ft above the landing area, they start a series of turns up to 1080 degrees in order to generate great speeds of up to 150 km/90 miles per hour; they use the speeds to propel themselves into executing highly technical freestyle moves across the body of water, prior to landing on the floating platform.
18 competitors from 11 countries will attend both events: Peblinge Lake, Queen Louise's Bridge, Copenhagen (DEN), 24-25th August and Embarcadero Marina Park South, San Diego (USA) 14-15th September where the 2018 FAI Swoop Freestyle World Champion will be crowned.
FAI President Frits Brink commented: “The high-adrenalin sport of swoop is growing rapidly in popularity and is a thrilling spectator sport.
Following the success of 2017’s inaugural Swoop Freestyle World Championships, the FAI is delighted to work with A. Sports again to showcase the sport at the two international events in 2018.”
George Stribling Blythe, CEO of A. Sports, organisers of Swoop Freestyle FAI World Championships, commented: “We have a vision for the sport and its future that we are delighted to be realising with FAI. We are appealing to a new generation of sports consumers, brands, media and hosting cities. For us the sky is no longer the limit.”
Photo credit: Mathias Egeberg
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