In a recent issue of the International Sailing Federation's magazine, my opposite number observed: "How boring it must be to be the President of
a monolithic sport like Tennis or Football. Simple but boring". He
described the many and varied forms that sailing can take, from board sailing to ocean racing, and complained that he was constantly being lobbied by one group or another that their speciality was the only answer. "Sailors", he said, "must realise that they are all equal members of a very diverse and challenging sport". The challenge for his Federation and its national member organisations was "to ensure that all sailors felt welcome and participated as equal partners".
How I sympathise with him - and not only because sailing and other water sports have much in common with our own air sports. We all suffer from a burning belief that ours is the only true air sport. I have to admit that, as a parachutist, I feel a certain special affection and loyalty to the freefall fraternity. But I have tasted and recognise the challenges, the satisfaction and pleasures on offer in other airsports, from the athleticism and adventure of paragliding, skysurfing and aerobatics through the technical sophistication of, say, radio-controlled model helicopter flying to the apparent calm and stately grandeur of wide-span sailplanes and hot-air balloons. The World Air Games was a show-case for all these disciplines, and many more that FAI seeks to serve, and since last September I have sensed a real coming together of the air sport community. It is no use having as a primary aim in our Statutes: "to bring all people closer in mutual understanding and friendship, regardless of political, racial or religious considerations, thereby helping to create international good will and build a better and more peaceful world" if we cannot work together harmoniously,in mutual respect of our different interests, to achieve goals which will benefit us all.
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