B.J. Worth's farewell speech to IPC 2013

IPC Farewell           B.J. Worth

For 43 years, skydiving has been my passion.     Since my first year as a university student, skydiving has consumed my life - my social life, my competition life, my professional life (in the film industry), my recreational life (with event organizing), and my volunteer life serving USPA, IPC, and FAI.

I have no regrets.  Skydiving has been very good to me, and when possible, I’ve tried to return the favor.  However, I’ve had very little life outside of skydiving.     So, a year from now, I will be stepping back from our great sport in most capacities, and will start chasing a bucket list – one that has already grown so much that it will take 10 years to complete.  

I find it ironic that, at my first IPC meeting, 38 years ago, I came armed with a satchel of little stick men and a radical notion for a new competition discipline.  I tried to convince the IPC delegates that 4- and 8-way sequential was the future of our sport.  

Now, at what will almost certainly be my final IPC meeting, I come here trying to convince you that sequential skydiving is the future of our sport, albeit on a slightly different scale.  I thank you for your overwhelming support in embracing this new IPC discipline.  I believe it will well-serve our sport and our sportsmen and women for years to come.

It has been an honor to have worked with so many of you over the past decades to help develop our sport into what it has become today.  I’ve enjoyed re-writing the perfect documents year after year.  I’m pleased to have helped introduce so many new disciplines into our sport.  I fondly remember the resistance to my initiative to implement sanction fees at IPC events.  And, I am very proud of the spectacular skydiving exhibition we organized and performed together for the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Olympic Games.

I wish you all the best as you continue to serve the IPC over the coming decades.  I only ask that the IPC’s priorities continue to focus on the best interests of the majority of skydivers out in the field.

It’s been a great run.  Thank you.

January 2013.