The 2026 USPA National Skydiving Championships brought the country’s best competitors to Skydive Perris, and Skydive Arizona had plenty to celebrate. Teams and athletes who call Eloy home or train here earned gold and silver medals, set records, secured Team USA spots and showed just how deep this community runs.
What Are the USPA National Skydiving Championships and Why Do They Matter?
Nationals are where USPA crowns U.S. champions across the sport’s competitive disciplines. At the Perris portion of the 2026 championships there were competitions on formation skydiving, artistic events, canopy formation, speed skydiving and wingsuit flying, with teams and individual athletes working through multiple scored rounds under official judging.
The stakes go beyond the podium. USPA uses the Open classes at Nationals to select athletes and teams who will represent the United States in international competition. A season of training comes down to a handful of rounds, where every point, transition and fraction of a second matters.
Skydive Arizona Was All Over Nationals
The competition took place in California, but there was a strong Eloy footprint from start to finish. Skydive Arizona sponsored teams were competing, other athletes had spent the year training here, AXIS Flight School coaches were on the podium, and one of our aircraft was there helping keep the meet moving.
Arizona Airspeed: Gold in 4-Way, 10-Way and 16-Way, Silver in 8-Way
Arizona Airspeed opened its championship run with a national title in 4-way Open. The race stayed tight through the meet, but Airspeed finished with 254 points, three ahead of the Golden Knights, to take gold.
Then came 8-way. Airspeed finished second in the Open class with a 13.9-point average, adding silver to an already strong Nationals.
And they were not done yet.
In 16-way, Arizona Airspeed entered the final rounds locked in a close battle with Spaceland 16. Airspeed pulled ahead late and finished with 43 points for gold. Their 7.2-point average also set a new California state record.
For anyone who spends time at Skydive Arizona, Airspeed is part of the landscape in Eloy. You see the team training, sharing aircraft with other jumpers and putting in the same focused work that showed up on the scoreboard at Nationals.
Airspeed also earned U.S. team selection for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, so the next chapter is already taking shape.
Airspeed closed Nationals with one more title in 10-way Speed. Across six rounds and three different aircraft, they posted the lowest overall time and took gold. Skydive Arizona president Shawn Hill was part of the 10-way lineup, earning gold alongside the current Airspeed team and alumni.
Airspeed members also finished Nationals as Combined Freefall national champions. USPA awards that title to competitors who take part in at least three of the four Open formation skydiving events: 4-way, 8-way, 16-way and 10-way, using their three best placements. With Airspeed on the podium in all four, it was one more measure of just how strong their meet was.
AZ Mandatory Fun Earns a 2027 World Cup Spot
AZ Mandatory Fun finished fourth in 8-way Open with 105 points. Their result also put them inside the U.S. four-team qualification quota for the 2027 FAI Outdoor World Cup in Brazil. It gives the Eloy community another team to follow as the next international season takes shape.
Ranch TNT SDAZ also gave us another reason to celebrate in 4-way
The all-female team set a California state record for longest sequence with 28 points in Round 1 and earned a place on the U.S. Parachute Team for the 2027 FAI World Cup.
Photos by David Cherry
Arizona Anthem Brings Home VFS Silver
Arizona Anthem finished second in Open Vertical Formation Skydiving with 176 points. They tied the eventual champions in two rounds and kept the competition close while adding another silver medal to the Skydive Arizona side of the results.
Anthem’s result reflects the work we see all year in Eloy. When they are not training themselves, they coach other skydivers in the sky and in the tunnel, helping newer VFS flyers build the skills and confidence to keep progressing.
We are proud they call Skydive Arizona home.
FliteShop Wins MFS Gold and Sets a California Record
FliteShop took first place in Open Mixed Formation Skydiving with 150 points. Their 15-point average also set a new California state record for the discipline.
Jason Peters, Andy Malchiodi and Taylor Buffington were part of the gold-medal team.
It was another strong result for athletes with deep ties to the Eloy community.
Niklas Daniel and Brianne Thompson Put Speed on the Record Board
Niklas Daniel won individual Speed Skydiving gold with a 535.30 km/h average. USPA Nationals reported national and California state records for both highest average speed and highest overall average.
The mixed-team category brought more gold. Daniel and Brianne Thompson finished first with a 487.83 km/h average, setting national and state records in the new mixed-team recognition.
Nik and Brianne have spent the year training at Skydive Arizona while also coaching skydivers through AXIS Flight School. Seeing both of them on the podium was a pretty special way to watch that work pay off.
Their Nationals results also feed into the U.S. team selection path for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
Photos by Xian Cam Extreme Media, courtesy of USPA.
Skydive Arizona Helped Keep the Competition Moving
Nationals takes a coordinated operation on the ground and in the air to get every round completed. Skydive Arizona was part of that side of the meet, too.
Shawn Hill was at Skydive Perris flying one of Skydive Arizona’s aircraft during the championships. One of our favorite moments was seeing him wave Ranch TNT SDAZ off for Round 6 before getting another competition load on its way.
Artistic Events at Nationals
The Artistic Events competition at Nationals brought Freestyle and Freefly teams together for seven rounds at Skydive Perris. Skydive Arizona was represented behind the camera, too. David Cherry, one of our videographers and the photographer behind Flying Pig Studios, was there capturing the competition for USPA.
The photos below feature Freestyle Team Aura during their Nationals performance.
Photos by David Cherry, Flying Pig Studios, courtesy of the United States Parachute Association (USPA).
What a Nationals for Skydive Arizona
By the end of the Perris meet, Skydive Arizona connections had reached the podium across formation skydiving, VFS, MFS and speed, with new records and future Team USA representation mixed in. The results are worth celebrating, but what stands out most is how many different parts of the Eloy community showed up at Nationals.
Congratulations to everyone who competed and to the crews behind the scenes who made the championship happen. For the teams heading toward the 2027 FAI World Cup in Brazil, the work continues. We will be cheering from Arizona.