posted Feb 25th, 2009 - Sad news for the fans of 4-way Formation Skydiving competition and Freestyle came from Italy this week. The organizers of the World Air Games 2009 in Turin informed teams and competitors of both events that 4-way Formation Skydiving and Freestyle competition have been removed from the event schedule.

The official website of the World Air Games 2009 still features 4-way competition on its front page. However, the bad news were delivered by e-mail to the participants in the meantime. The Italian organizers tried to explain the reasons for the cancellation:

"The organisers are victims of the world financial crisis and have failed to obtain the expected levels of private sponsorship.

They therefore decided that they were unable to fund the Air-to-Ground system required to provide instant scoring.

Since the principle aim of the Games is to show-case skydiving and other air sport events to the general public, the IPC Bureau reluctantly decided, with the full support of the central FAI, that it would make more sense to concentrate this time on the canopy events only. This proposal was accepted by the Turin Local Organising Committee."

The World Air Games are sanctioned by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). The International Parachuting Commission (IPC) represents Parachuting within the FAI. The IPC just had its annual meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, as the NSL News reported on 2 February 2009.

The bad news effects directly only five teams. The NSL News explained the qualification rules for the World Air Games on 4 February 2008 (Archives > 2008 > News > Search for "World Air Games"). The five best national 4-way teams, male or female, at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2008 would be invited to Italy, which turned out to be Airspeed Odyssey, France Maubeuge, Hayabusa Defence, Sky Panthers, Arcteryx. These teams now have to cancel their own travel plans and adjust their summer schedule of 2009.

This situation is bad enough for the busy teams. However, there is more damage behind the actual team troubles. The decision puts Formation Skydiving competition in general in a bad position for future reference. Presence at the World Air Games has been important for the reputation of the sport.

The serious injury for Formation Skydiving and Freestyle competition could be a self-inclicted wound, at least for Formation Skydiving competition.

The reason for the cancellation is obviously the fact that the "Air-to-Ground system required to provide instant scoring" costs more money than the Italian event organizers could afford to spend or wanted to spend.

There is more behind the financial situation. The IPC has supported the goal of air-to-ground transmission to provide instant scoring for a long time and still refuses to consider the application of modern technology and slower judging speed based on this philosophy. In fact, there is a current IPC document that explains the background for the opposition to slower judging speed in the "STRATEGIC PLAN FOR IPC". This strategic plan could be one of the reasons why 4-way Formation Skydiving now became a victim in the race for international reputation.

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR IPC

"The Mission of the FAI International Parachute Commission is the Pursuit of Excellence in Sport Parachuting. To fulfill this mission, the International Parachute Commission (IPC) will launch initiatives in partnership with the FAI to develop sport parachuting as an attractive and dynamic activity. The initiatives cover competition formats, selection process for international events, promotion of safety.

The vision of IPC to develop competition formats that clearly communicate the competitive element of the disciplines to the audience and the participant. IPC will introduce instant judging and presentation of results in all disciplines, simplify the competition rules, improve the consistency of rules across disciplines.

The vision of IPC is to proactively pursue organisers for international events at venues, which have easy access for the public and media. IPC will develop material to attract organisers, move towards competition venues with easy access to the public and media, seek organisers with the capability of exploring the sport’s marketing potential, issue a calendar of competitions as a guideline to potential organisers."

Instant judging is a crucial part of the IPC strategy, and it is obviously the problem that the Italian organizers were not able to master, according to the recent message of cancellation to the teams.

Instant judging has also been a controversial topic in the Formation Skydiving competition community, as the NSL News reported several times in the past, whenever the topic came back up.

Instant judging logically excludes any slower speed judging. The IPC opposition to using available technology for slower speed judging is based on the strategic goal to "introduce instant judging and presentation of results in all disciplines". The increasing request for slower speed judging by a growing number of teams and competitors has not swayed the position of the IPC delegates and IPC's Formation Skydiving Committee yet.

Fortunately, instant judging is not required for other Formation Skydiving events by the IPC yet.

It was supposed to be applied only at the World Air Games in Italy and the World Games in China this year. However, the official strategy plan obviously points the same direction for other events, such as the World Championships and World Cups of Formation Skydiving.

This creates an interesting conflict between the IPC strategists and the teams and competitors. Instant judging will require additional expenses due to necessary hardware and software for a relatively small community. It will also logically limit judging to one full speed viewing. At the same time, the best teams continue to increase speed and scoring levels, while they adjust their own strategies to the current rules: "Sell the points to the judges."

The cancellation of the World Air Games for the 4-way teams might be a sign from heaven, literally. It could be an injury that motivates IPC's Formation Skydiving Committee to re-consider its input into IPC's official strategy plan. Improving public relations and marketing for the top events and the sport in general deserves the special attention, probably more than anything else.

Trying to bring freefall action live to spectators on competition site will probably turn out as a very difficult or impossible task, and it doesn't seem to be the most important component for the sport. Freefall action can still always be aired on TV, just slightly delayed. It seems to be more critical to provide correct scores and results for the athletes to begin with.

There is still a bright side for the five teams that planned to compete in Italy in June. The cancellation may clean up the busy 2009 travel schedule for some of the best 4-way teams in the world.