Annual Report 2017 table of Contents 1 President’s Foreword About FAI 4 Highlight Events The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI – The 6 The World Games 2017 World Air Sports Federation, was founded in 1905. It is an 8 1st FAI International Drones non-governmental and non-profit-making international Conference and Expo organisation, IOC ‒ recognised, with the basic aim of furthering aeronautical and astronautical activities worldwide, ratifying international records and coordinating the organisation of 10 Air Sports international competitions. After over a century of steady 12 Connecting Across Air Sports growth, FAI is now an organisation of more than 100 member countries, forming a strong network linking all those who 14 New Sports participate in air sports worldwide. 16 Championships & Events 18 Events & Athletes Statistics airsports.fai 20 Achievements airsports_fai airsportschannel 22 International Records photos/airsports_fai 24 Awards Ceremony airsports.fai 26 FAI Young Artists Contest 28 General Information 30 General Conference 32 Members 36 Media 38 Sponsorship & Partnership 44 Annexes 46 List of 2017 Competition Results 57 List of 2017 International Records 63 List of 2017 Awards 63 List of Members 65 FAI Structure 66 Credits FAI ANNUAL REPORT – 2017 President’s Foreword Greetings from Lausanne, Switzerland, the Olympic The decision by the International World Games Association Capital, and home of FAI, the World Air Sports Federation. to include these disciplines in The World Games was a The year 2017 was a busy and exciting one for the FAI, with result of our commitment to further the appeal of air a total of 63 FAI World and Continental Championships sports by introducing them to more multi-sport events, a and an incredible 613 FAI-sanctioned events taking place commitment that also shone through during our successful around the world. Numerous FAI athletes also pushed campaign to add paragliding to the programme for the the boundaries of their chosen sports to set new records, 2018 Asian Games. while a number of outstanding pilots and competitors FAI’s own multi-sports event, the FAI World Air Games, were honoured with FAI awards. is the jewel in the Federation’s crown. Building upon the It was also an eventful year for one of the FAI’s youngest success of the 2015 edition in Dubai, the bidding process for disciplines: drone racing. With its history of promoting the next Games attracted several high quality candidates. innovation, and its decades of competitive air sport and Following a strict selection process, our Turkish Member regulatory experience, the FAI is perfectly placed to lead Türk Hava Kurumu (THK) was awarded the organisation of the way in the development of drone sports. The success the FAI World Air Games 2020 in early 2018. of the 1st FAI International Drones Conference and Expo In 2017, FAI was also proud to run more than 60 single-sport in September 2017, which attracted attendees from five competitions around the world. Ranging from longstanding, continents, cemented our position as the foremost global strategic competitions such as the Coupe Aéronautique authority on all things drone. Gordon Bennett to the adrenaline-filled Red Bull Air Race We have also been busy supervising drone sports competitions World Championships, these events allowed our athletes such as the FAI Drone Racing World Cup, which has been to demonstrate their prowess and display the beauty of running since 2016, and the forthcoming first edition of the air sports in a wide variety of locations. FAI World Drone Racing Championships. The Championships And we were there to applaud the many pilots and skydivers will be held in Shenzhen in China from 1 to 4 November who reached new highs during the course of the year. 2018, and will be a fantastic opportunity for the stars of Record breakers in 2017 included UAE skydiver Cornelia this booming new sport to demonstrate their talents to the Mihai and Russians Ivan Menyaylo and Fedor Konyukhov, world. It is great to see up-and-coming air sports such as while the UK’s Ben Philpott was among those decorated drone racing and indoor skydiving, another new sport for with FAI awards – in his case for assisting a fellow pilot in which the 2nd FAI World Championships was held in 2017, critical circumstances, despite having suffered a traumatic attracting attention from a new generation of fans, including experience. many young women – a group the FAI is particularly keen to help both enjoy and excel in air sports. Air sports competitions and records have always been our focus. But in this modern age, another of the FAI’s roles Other highlights of 2017 included The World Games, which is to ensure our sports are promoted in the best possible took place in July in Wroclaw, Poland. This 10-day sporting way; using new technology and new mediums such as extravaganza was a great opportunity to showcase the social media to share the splendour and excitement of skills of our athletes in three disciplines – canopy piloting, competitive aviation with a wider audience and develop paramotoring and glider acrobatics – included for the first an even stronger air sports community as a result. time last year. FAI ANNUAL REPORT – 2017 1 This is one of the main reasons behind our recent partnership The FAI General Conference, which took place in Lausanne, with the Olympic Channel, which began working with was another opportunity to strengthen the bonds within our the Federation in 2017 – broadcasting live footage of the community. On this occasion the Delegates admitted the spectacular action from the FAI World Indoor Skydiving following three Members: the Libyan Airsports Federation Championships in Canada and the FAI Swoop Freestyle and the Fédération Tunisienne des Sports Aéronautiques World Championships in Denmark. et Activités Associées (Active Members); the Asociación Uruguaya de Parapente (Associate Member). To them, Effective partnerships are essential to the successful running welcome to FAI. of the Federation and its numerous events. Throughout 2017, the FAI maintained rewarding commercial relationships The admission of these three new Members brings the with our Official Logistics Partner DHL and our Global global FAI family to a total of 115, giving us a great basis Technical Partner Noosphere, which developed a hi-tech for increasing activity levels across all air sports disciplines, event management system that we used with great success all around the world. for the first time at The World Games. We also continued It should also be noted that the Conference started with to develop our partnership with cloud hosting company our prestigious FAI Awards Ceremony, which celebrates Leaseweb, which is the host for the new FAI website. outstanding pilots and pioneers from across the global On an internal level, meanwhile, the FAI is evolving to ensure air sports arena. I was honoured to see it graced with the the Federation is primed to face the challenges and take presence of several high profile guests, including Dr Thomas full advantage of the opportunities arising as air sports Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). change and grow. That is why I was delighted to play an To conclude, I would like to express my thanks to all of instrumental role in the first FAI Air Sports in Asia Summit you: FAI Event Organisers, Commissions, Members, Officials, in Hong Kong. It was an important event aimed at ensuring volunteers, partners and Head Office staff. Our Federation the effective and sustainable development of air sports in is going from strength to strength and that is down to you. that part of the world, where Members such as the Aero Sports Federation of China (ASFC) are doing a wonderful I look forward to continuing to share the wonderful world job of promoting air sports and attracting lots of young of air sports with you in 2018! participants via events including the FAI ‒ AFSC World Fly-in Expo in Wuhan. Again, I was lucky enough to attend this epic event – hopefully the first of many organised by our dynamic Chinese Member. Frits Brink FAI President 2 FAI ANNUAL REPORT – 2017 FAI ANNUAL REPORT – 2017 3 HIGHLIGHT EVENTS Poland’s Wojciech Bogdal delighted the home crowds by becoming the first ever Paramotor Champion at The World Games 2017, one of the highlights of an action-packed year for FAI events. VIDEOS 4 FAI ANNUAL REPORT – 2017 FAI ANNUAL REPORT – 2017 5 HIGHLIGHT EVENTS The World Games 2017 PHOTOS The FAI is keen to strengthen its links with the extended Other highlights of The World Games 2017 for the FAI global sports community through participation in both included that it was the venue for the Federation’s mid- international and regional multi-sports events. Having air year FAI Air Sport Commissions Presidents and FAI Active sports competitions at these large-scale sporting events Members Presidents meetings, and a chance to try the new allows them to benefit from vast media attention, and is event management system eNavigator, developed by FAI an excellent opportunity to show off our athletes’ skills. Global Technical Partner Noosphere. Used to create the event website, and to process and display results in the So the Federation was delighted that three of its sports – paramotoring and glider aerobatics competitions, the glider aerobatics, parachuting canopy piloting (swooping) cutting-edge system also sent out official scores for all and paramotoring – were selected by the International the air sports events. It was declared a success, especially World Games Association to be on the programme of The as it allowed fans to follow the realtime evolution of the World Games 2017. Held under the patronage of the IOC, athletes’ scores and rankings live online. The World Games take place every four years, and are for sports or disciplines not included in the Olympic Games.