U.S. Teams Triumph at World Cups!
Photos by Johnny Gunn.
The U.S. Parachute Team put in absolutely stellar performances at the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (World Air Sports Federation) World Cup of Formation Skydiving and Artistic Events in Voss, Norway, and the World Cup of Speed Skydiving and Wingsuit Flying in Prostejov, Czech Republic. From the two locations, the teams brought home 14 medals (7 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze) and put in record-setting performances.
It’s hard to imagine a better meet for the U.S. than the FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving and Artistic Events in Voss. The U.S. took the gold in freestyle (XP Ascend—Jason Brigmon and Jake Carlton), 4-way FS (Arizona Airspeed—David French, Niklas Hemlin, Christopher Kuhlmann, Mikhail Markine and Joseph Marshall), 4-way female FS (XPG4—Jeana Billings, Anna Brunner, Michelle Karamon, Joss Martin and Brenn Richards), 8-way FS (GKXP8—Chris Bess, Jeana Billings, Nicholas Birkner, Michael Connors, John D'Annunzio, Matthew Davidson, Andrew Happick, Andrew Starr, Jeshua Stahler, Mitchell Stockenberg and Kirk Verner) and 4-way vertical FS (SDC Core—Chip Keating, Sam Lendle, Jason Russell, Nicole Senecal and Stephanie Strange).
4-Way Vertical FS Gold Medalist SDC Core.
It was a gold-medal sweep for the United States in Voss, with the exception of freefly … for which the U.S. did not field a team! And just to add some icing on the cake, the second U.S. 8-way team, Prison 9 (Gorka Amian, Brian Ball, Doug Barron, Keith Conner, Douglas Hendrix, Greg Oldendick, Scott Latinis, Charles McGee and Christopher Webb), took the bronze!
The U.S. also saw excellent results at the World Cup of Speed Skydiving and Wingsuit Flying. Speed Skydiver Niklas Daniel took the silver medal in the open event, just behind Marco Hepp from Germany. In the female speed event, USA’s Brianne Thompson also took silver, just behind returning world champion Natasha Dingle from Australia. The U.S. Speed Skydiving Team (Niklas Daniel, Matthew Fry and Logan Mahone) took the bronze medal, while Australia and German took gold and silver, respectively.
The U.S also medaled in wingsuit acrobatic flying, with Flatspin (Travis Mickle, Jeffrey Harrigan and Nicholas Maieritsch) taking the bronze. Germany took the gold and France the silver. In wingsuit performance, USA's Alexey Galda bested 46 other performers to take home the gold in overall and in the distance event, as well as silver in the time event. In the team performance event, Team USA (Galda, Joe Ridler and Daniel White) took the silver behind the powerhouse Australian team.
The members of the U.S. Parachute Team put in remarkable performances, and thanks to their training and dedication, represented the USA with pride. Full results of the competitions are available at results.worldskydiving.org.
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