Air Sports

What are air sports?

Air sports are competitive aviation in every form the air allows: skydiving (formation, freefly, canopy piloting and accuracy), paragliding and hang gliding cross-country and acro, gliding in sailplanes, aerobatics, air racing, ballooning, and now drone racing. All sit under the FAI, one of the oldest federations in sport.^[1] [2]

How are they organized?

Each discipline has FAI world championships on its own cycle, plus circuit competitions — the Paragliding World Cup, the Gliding World Championships, the World Aerobatic Championships and the Drone Racing League's FAI-sanctioned world championship. The FAI also stages the World Air Games, its multi-discipline showcase, and air sports appear at the World Games.^[2] [3]

The FAI's other job: world records

Beyond sport, the FAI is the world's ratifying authority for aviation records — speed, distance and altitude marks for every class of aircraft, and, remarkably, for spaceflight as well. When an altitude or duration record is certified in aviation or human spaceflight, it is the FAI that certifies it, using the Kármán line it helped popularize as the boundary of space.^[2] [4]

How are air sports awarded?

• World championship medals in each discipline, plus World Air Games titles.^[2]
• FAI-ratified world records — the sport's most durable credential.^[4]
• World Cup standings — notably in paragliding and gliding.^[3]
• FAI sporting licences — required to set a record or enter sanctioned competition.^[2]