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 Some of the world's best parachutists and skydivers enter the Accuracy Landing and the Formation and Freestyle Skydiving events staged in conjunction with the World Games 2001 from August 14 to 22 in Akita, Japan.
Akita 2001 may well be a few notches down from Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, to the contingent of athletes and officials representing the FAI - to 112 people from 16 countries - these are the most important days of this year’s sporting calendar. Rightfully so! The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the IWGA enhances the status of the World Games significantly. The IOC granting the quadrennial multi-sports event its patronage and collaborating with the Organizing Committee are bound to raise the profile of Akita 2001 to new heights. The athletes representing the FAI attempt to rise to the occasion too: putting in their best performances, matching up against each other for the coveted title of 2001 World Games Champion. They compete fiercely, but they always adhere to the spirit of FAIR SPORT ON WINGS, holding fairness and clean sport in the highest regard. A number of the FAI’s athletes at Akita were involved in an incident, which took place during the recent 2001 World Formation Skydiving Championships in Granada, Spain, and which serves well to exemplify their commitment to FAIR SPORT ON WINGS: Team X’s main competition came from the Y team, which had lost in the race for the title to X by only two points in Australia. In Spain, X led by two points after round two. Then in round three, both the Y and Z missed the boarding call, ...the two teams missed their planes, resulting in zeros for the round. Both teams filed protests, but without a specific rule to cite, the protests couldn’t really hold up with the jury. Meanwhile, team X led a petition of all team captains to allow teams Y and Z to make their round-three jump. There was talk of the other teams sitting out one of their rounds to make up for Y’s and Z’s zeros. But then X member ..., also a lawyer, argued passionately before the jury for it to allow the jumps. The plea succeeded, and the teams Y and Z got to erase the zeros from the scoreboard. Then in round ten, Y scored 23 points and X only 19, giving Y the win by just one point, stopping X’s winning streak of 24 years. X members all echoed the same sentiment: "This is how its should be!" * *Reproduced (with modifications) from PARACHUTIST
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