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Some of you may have seen this column last month. If not click back to consult it, so that what follows makes more sense. The FAI is recognised by the International Olympic Committee for the sports of parachuting, gliding and hang-gliding and paragliding. This means that, in theory at least, any or all of these sports could find their way onto the Olympic Games programme. In practice, only one of the air sports, parachuting, has shown evidence of a settled ambition to feature in the Olympic Games. The FAI Parachuting Commission's campaign to achieve this ambition is already at least 15 years old. Parachuting featured in the Games in Seoul (1988) and Barcelona (1992), but only as a demonstration sport. There is no chance of parachuting being on the Olympic programme before 2008 at the earliest. The Olympics are already too big. Some sports must be ejected to make room for new ones, and this of course is politically a very hot potato. That is why something that happened in Monte Carlo on Friday 27 October 2000 is so important for parachuting and other air sports. After resisting any such move for many years, the IOC has now given its formal support - financial, moral and logistical - to the International World Games Association (IWGA), the organisation that runs the quadrennial "World Games" - the multi-sport event for IOC recognised sports that are not in the Olympics (water-skiing, squash, rugby, orienteering, roller skating and over 20 others). The full text of the agreement signed by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch is on the IOC website at: http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/news/pressreleases/press_368_e.html I urge you to read it. The effects of this decision are far-reaching. It means that the Olympic rings will now fly over the stadium of the World Games in Akita, Japan, next September as our best skydivers vie for the title of World Games champion. If you want to find out more about the Akita World Games, see: and especially, for the parachuting event: http://www.wg2001.or.jp/engimg/ea31210.htm This decision opens up the perspective that the World Games will evolve into a junior branch of the Olympics, from which sports may be promoted into the Olympic Games proper, and into which former Olympic sports may be relegated without too much shame. With the whole Olympic machine now backing the World Games, the event is poised to move into a new league, much more attractive to TV and to sponsors. The 2005 World Games will be held at Duisburg in Germany, a city with great resources and potential. Their promotional video starts with a sequence depicting a sailplane. Perhaps parachuting will not for much longer be the only air sport to recognise the great potential of the World Games.
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