Indoor skydiving is so cool! The 5th FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) World Indoor Skydiving Championships for Artistic Events recently concluded in Charleroi, Belgium, and wow, I've been absolutely mesmerized watching the various routines folks have been posting.
Competitors in indoor skydiving perform in and show off their skills inside wind tunnels, which the FAI Skydiving Commission describes as:
. . . a circular space of varying diameter, made with transparent vertical walls in which a strong vertical airflow is produced by electric motors. The general public can watch the flyers revolve and rotate inside the tunnel, with the added value of the competition being easily visible to spectators.
The artistic events competitions include "Solo Freestyle" and "Dynamic." The FAI Skydiving Commission further explains:
Freestyle is a solo discipline, where the athletes perform compulsory and free routines. The competitor can choose to fly the free routine to music. Dynamic is a discipline specially developed for indoor skydiving competitions. The athletes compete as teams of two or four, and they perform synchronised speed and free routines.
These events "test the ability of the athletes to control their bodies, enabling them to create a routine, performing predefined compulsory moves or formations." To me, they look a lot like gymnastics or synchronized swimming routines, but, oh-so-amazingly suspended in air. Athletes' scores are based on a combination of factors, including technical performance, artistry, creativity, and use of time and space. They are truly quite breathtaking to behold!
I'm especially enamored with the team from Singapore, which includes gold medal-winning skydiving champion Kyra Poh, who has been posting photos and videos of the team and their awesome routines on social media. The team won First Place in the 4-Way Dynamic category, and Third Place in 2-Way Dynamic. They also set a new fastest time World Record of 45.110 seconds, beating the previous time, 45.576 seconds.
I hope you enjoy the routines as much as I do!
See more from the Singapore team at Kyra Poh's Instagram or TikTok. And learn more about the FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships at the WISC website. You can also see the results from all of the competition categories here.
