From October 18 to 24, 2026, Skydive Arizona in Eloy will host five FAI World Championships in one week. If you are coming to watch, you will see five very different sides of competitive skydiving. Formation Skydiving and Artistic Events happen high above the drop zone and are judged from video. Speed Skydiving is measured with GPS. At the pond, Canopy Piloting brings timed and measured runs, while Canopy Piloting Freestyle adds tricks and presentation.
This guide gives you the basics you need to follow each discipline, understand how the performances become scores, and keep up with the official standings throughout the week.
The 2026 Championships at a Glance
The FAI event page lists the 16th FAI World Artistic Events Championships, the 11th FAI World Canopy Piloting Championships, the 5th FAI World Canopy Piloting Freestyle Championships, the 6th FAI World Speed Skydiving Championships, and the 27th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships, which includes 4-Way Open, 4-Way Female, and 8-Way, at Skydive Arizona.
Each championship has its own scoring method. A formation team earns points by completing formations. Artistic teams receive judging scores. Speed Skydiving uses measured freefall speed. Canopy Piloting combines course performance with timing, distance, or accuracy, while Freestyle uses a judging panel to score maneuvers.
How to Follow Formation Skydiving
What You’re Watching
When you watch Formation Skydiving, you are watching teams race through a prescribed sequence of formations in freefall. A competition team has four or eight performers plus a videographer. Across as many as 10 rounds, each round contains five or six formations drawn from an international pool of random formations and blocks.
The team repeats that sequence during the working time. Random formations require a complete release of grips between formations, while blocks connect two formations with a defined movement. As you watch the competition video, look for how quickly and cleanly the team moves through the sequence. Every clean transition creates another chance to score before the working time ends.
US National Champions Arizona Airspeed. Photo by Alex Swindle.
How Formation Skydiving Is Judged
The team videographer records the round, and judges score the performance from that footage. Each correctly completed formation earns one point. An incorrect formation or transition can produce a bust, which removes that scoring opportunity.
Once you know what to look for, the leaderboard is straightforward: follow the points earned in each round, then the running total. After the final completed round, the team with the highest point total leads the event.
Ranch TNT SDAZ, the U.S. team for 4-Way Female. Photo by Zach Lewis.
How to Follow Artistic Events
Freestyle and Freefly
In Artistic Events, you are watching technical body flight meet choreography. The championship includes Freestyle and Freefly, with teams performing compulsory and free routines across a series of competition skydives. A camera flyer records each performance and becomes part of how the routine is presented to the judges.
Compulsory routines give the judges defined elements to assess, while free routines let teams build a choreographed sequence of their own. When you watch, pay attention to the control behind the movement and to how the performers work with the camera. That relationship is part of the final presentation.
Kyra Poh in freestyle flight, Europe, June 2021. Photo by Ewan Cowie
How Artistic Events Are Judged
FAI separates the judging criteria into technical and presentation elements. Judges review the camera footage and score how well the required or chosen movements are performed, along with the overall quality of the routine. The camera work matters because the judging panel sees the performance through that recorded view.
If you watch the competition video beside the round score, the judging becomes much easier to follow. You can see the technical control and the visual presentation at the same time, then connect what happened in the air with the score on the board.
How to Follow Speed Skydiving
How Speed Is Measured
Speed Skydiving measures how fast an athlete travels vertically through freefall. A GPS device mounted on the athlete records the jump, and the official score comes from the fastest three-second average inside the scoring window. Competitors use streamlined, head-down body positions to reduce drag and build speed.
Two athletes spectators may recognize in Eloy are AXIS Flight School founders Niklas Daniel and Brianne Thompson. At the 2026 USPA Speed Skydiving Nationals, Niklas won individual gold and recorded a competition personal best of 542.65 km/h. Brianne was the top female competitor, with a best scoring round of 454.63 km/h. Together, they also won the newly recognized Mixed Speed Skydiving Team category. To follow Worlds, compare the three-second averages from each round and watch how consistently each athlete can reproduce that speed.
2026 USPA Mixed Speed Skydiving national champions Brianne Thompson and Niklas Daniel. Photo by Xian Cam Extreme Media, courtesy of USPA.
How to Follow Canopy Piloting
At the pond, Canopy Piloting gives you one of the clearest views of the competition. Athletes fly small, highly agile parachutes, build speed before entering the water course, and then manage that energy through one of three classic events. Each course asks them to use the same advanced canopy skills in a different way.
The swoop pond at Skydive Arizona
Accuracy
In Accuracy, watch the athlete enter the course, collect water-gate points, and finish with a landing score. Contact with the water gates adds points during the run. The landing area then rewards control and placement, with the central zone and a stand-up landing carrying the strongest scoring value.
Speed
In Speed, you are watching a race through a carved course. An electronic beam starts the clock at the entry gate, and another stops it at the exit. FAI measures the run to the thousandth of a second, so even a tiny difference can separate two competitors.
Distance
In Distance, watch how long the athlete can keep the canopy flying after entering the course. The measured distance runs from the entry gate to the first point of ground contact. A strong run carries speed efficiently while keeping the canopy within the course.
Canopy Piloting competition at Skydive Arizona
How to Follow Canopy Piloting Freestyle
How Freestyle Runs Are Judged
Canopy Piloting Freestyle turns the water course into a judged performance area. Athletes fly at high speed while performing declared maneuvers that involve their body, parachute, and contact with the water.
FAI judging considers technical difficulty, execution, presentation, and landing. A clean, controlled trick with strong presentation earns more value than the same maneuver performed with weaker execution. You can follow the entire run in one continuous view: the approach, the water contact, the maneuver, and the landing.
How Judging and Scoring Work Across the Championships
The five championships use different scoring systems because they test different skills. Formation Skydiving relies on judges reviewing video and counting correct formations. Artistic Events also use video, with judges evaluating technical performance and presentation. Speed Skydiving comes from GPS data. Canopy Piloting uses timing, measured distance, course gates, and landing performance. Canopy Piloting Freestyle returns to a judging panel for the quality of the declared maneuvers.
Official results are published under the FAI Sporting Code and the discipline-specific competition rules.
The simplest way to follow the championships is to look at the round score first and the cumulative standings second. Formation Skydiving shows points. Speed Skydiving shows measured speed. Artistic Events and Freestyle show judging scores. Canopy Piloting results reflect the scoring method of the course being flown.
What You Can See From the Ground
The Bent Prop Saloon & Cookery gives spectators a place to grab food and drinks while staying close to the atmosphere of championship week. The designated spectator area and main landing area also give visitors a place to watch arrivals and follow the activity around the drop zone.
Formation Skydiving, Artistic Events, and Speed Skydiving happen primarily in freefall, so competition video and official scoring updates provide much of the detail from those events. Skydive Arizona also recommends binoculars for watching freefall, while the spectator area keeps you close to the landings and the energy of the competition.
How to Follow the Championships Online
FAI plans regular championship coverage through Facebook and Instagram, with event photography published on Flickr. The FAI event page will remain the central source for championship information, while the official results site will publish competition standings as rounds are completed.
Skydive Arizona’s championship page gives you the organizer’s event information from Eloy. Follow both FAI and Skydive Arizona so you can keep the official competition view alongside updates from the host drop zone.
Watching at Skydive Arizona
Under Skydive Arizona’s standard viewing policy, admission and parking are free. The main spectator area has a small set of bleachers, with picnic tables and benches around the facility. Visitors can also bring a camping chair. The Bent Prop Saloon & Cookery is right on the drop zone, making it an easy place to grab food or drinks and stay connected to the atmosphere of the competition.
Championship operations can change how different parts of the facility are used, so check the Skydive Arizona championship page shortly before your visit. That is where you should look for the latest event instructions, viewing information, and schedule updates.
Follow Worlds With a Better Eye
Once you know a few scoring basics, the 2026 FAI World Championships become much easier to follow. In Formation Skydiving, count completed formations. In Artistic Events, watch the technical control and presentation. In Speed Skydiving, follow the three-second average. In Canopy Piloting, follow how athletes turn speed into time, distance, accuracy, or freestyle maneuvers.
The official results site will show you how every round changes the standings, while FAI and Skydive Arizona will provide the event coverage around those scores. From October 18 to 24, you will be able to see several very different forms of competitive skydiving come together in one championship week in Eloy