International recognition: The management team behind the past three years innovative parachuting event, Swoop Challenge, are pleased to announce that the adrenalin-fuelled and spectator-friendly competition is now an Official World Championships in collaboration with the International Air Sports governing body, FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale). It is the first time ever that freestyle swooping will have its own World Championship.
FAI Swoop Freestyle World Championships is to be held for the time in Copenhagen, on The Lakes, 25th & 26th August, where 18 of the world’s best are invited to compete for the inaugural World Championship title in Swoop Freestyle.
“We are incredibly proud that our concept in only three years has grown so large that now the international governing body has given us the responsibility for the first Freestyle World Championships ever in the middle of Copenhagen. We have fine tuned the concept over the past few years and still dream of taking Swoop Freestyle on tour to the worlds major cities, as the combination of extreme sport and urban environment are a perfect match, where we provide high octane entertainment to where people live and work,” states George Stribling Blythe, Director of A. Sports, the event company behind Swoop Freestyle.
Swoop Freestyle is the new urban extreme sport both competitive and technical. It combines speed and precision flying. The athletes jump from 1500 meters (5.000 feet) above city centres, reaching speeds of up to 150 kilometres per hour. The speed generated by a series of turns is then utilised by the athletes to perform a range of tricks, whilst in contact with the water surface, prior to ending their run on a small floating platform. Swoop Freestyle has developed enormously over the past three years, whilst entrepreneurs George Stribling Blythe and Michael Kattrup Lassen have been at the helm of Swoop Challenge, that for the first time in history brought the adrenalin-fuelled and spectator-friendly swooping into the city, namely Copenhagen.
It is the whole of Denmark that will reap the benefits of the new World Championships.
“For the first time in history, the Swoop Freestyle World Championships will be held above the skies of Copenhagen. The Danish management team have for the last few years in collaboration with Copenhagen and Sport Event Denmark developed their concept into an official World Championships. The next goal is to utilise the event as an exhibition window for future host nations. We have now rolled up our sleeves to give this World Championships air under its wings,” states Lars Lundov, Director, Sport Event Denmark.
Technological breakthrough: Live TV-feeds from the air above the worlds major cities
The new competition format is tailor-made to both venue spectators and media viewers alike. When the top freestyle athletes from all over the world dive down to eye-level and perform incredible tricks at high speed, there is also an innovative production, combining extreme sport, the urban environment, and live athlete point-of-view feeds together in a new unique format.
Copenhagen has managed to develop the framework for an established sport to reinvent itself in modern settings, exactly where the people are.
“It is huge that the first Official World Championships in Swoop Freestyle ever will be held on The Lakes, in the heart of Copenhagen. Copenhagen hosts many different international sporting Championships – and now for an event that utilises the city space in a new and innovative manner. For the past years, Copenhagen has supported Swoop Challenge and I am therefore very proud to see an extreme sport event developed in Denmark receive international recognition as an Official World Championships.” Mayor of Copenhagen Culture & Leisure, Carl Christian Ebbesen.