About Us

Mission statement

The mission of the Paragliding World Cup Association is to put on the world's premier paragliding competitions, and to promote the growth of the sport around the world through partnerships with local organizers, local officials, and organizations involved in the sport.

PWCA Structure

The PWCA is a non-profit organization. All income is re-invested to improve future competitions. 
The Paragliding World Cup Association (PWCA) is an association of pilots, the PWCA members. 
The members elect the PWCA committee to run the organization.

 PWCA committee


Eduardo Sanchez Granel

Ulric Jessop

Federico Brown Manzone


Washington Luis Peruchi
Federico Brown Manzone

PWCA Events

The World Cup season contains of number of Superfinal selective events and one Superfinal. Details on selection procedure are to find in RULES 

Pre-PWCA events provide a way for pilots to earn letters in order to qualify for the main PWC tour, as well as a mechanism to vet new potential competition locations and organizers. 

The PWC Asian Tour events are also selective for the Superfinal, and are aimed at growing the sport in Asia by hosting world-class events, helping create new venues for the sport, and training new organizers. 

Any cross country paragliding event organizer wishing to organize any of the PWCA events are invited to contact the PWCA office at pwca@pwca.org.  

Rules

  1. Competition rules
  2. Legal information

Contact

Paragliding World Cup Office
20 Route d'Ombre, Marlens – 74210 Val de Chaise – France
Phone: +33 4 50 32 83 83

Brief history

The Paragiding World Cup Association was founded on 9th August 1991 in Verbier, when the first Pilots Committee was elected. The creation of the PWCA was motivated by the fact that the only strong competition that pilots could attend was the World Championship, but selection to this event is dependent on national federations and only limited number of pilots per country can participate. Pilots dreamed about a high level competition, where pilots qualify themselves purely with their own results, with no limits of participant numbers per country. 

Initially, the Paragliding World Cup was run as a tour of five events held all over the world. The winner of the season was defined by showing high level of results over the entire season. A simple discard system was applied: 2/3 of task results were used in the overall season score. At the last event, the overall World Cup season winner was crowned. 

After the Association voted in favor of Xavier Murillo's proposal for the Super Final system, the World Cup changed, in 2009, to run a number of selective events and one Super Final per season. This format has remained in place until the present.

For two season a concept of Continental PWCA Championship was run.

Interesting facts

Until 2000, paragliding competition results were scored by placing a pin on a map and examining photographs of a FAI sector around a turn point.

From 1996, competitions were scored with ScoreX software developed by Hannes Pepesch. After the introduction of GPSes to civil use, GPS data processing software such as Christian’s Quest's CheckIn were created and used to verify pilots performance in the task. Paragliding competitions entered new era.

GPS was introduced in the Paragliding World Cup as "primary evidence", with photo backups then, from season 2001, the World Cup was scored only by GPS and transited to 400m cylinders on turn points.

From 2009, the PWCA started using Ulric Jessop’s CompCheck as results processing software.

From 2010, the PWCA introduced live tracking.

Since the beginning of its history Paragliding World Cup has been a leader in innovation and pushing not only competitive paragliding sport, but also the development of competition wings, scoring systems and new rules.
 
Paragliding World Cup Presidents:

1991 – 1996: Otto Max Fischer.
1996 - 2004:  Olivier Burghelle
2004 – 2008: Christian Quest
2008 – present:  Goran Dimiskovski

Paragliding World Cup Champions

Superfinal Format 

| Man |  
2018:  Pierre Remy (FRA) 
2017:  Michael Sigel (SUI) 
2016:  Aaron Durogati (ITA) 
2015:  Stefan Wyss (SUI) 
2014:  Maxime Pinot (FRA) 
2013:  Ayumu MIYATA (JPN) 
2012:  Aaron Durogati (ITA) 
2011:  Peter Neuenschwander (SUI) 
2010:  Yann Martail (FRA) 
2009:  Charles Cazaux (FRA) 

| Women | 
2018:  Méryl Delferriere (FRA) 
2017:  Laurrie Genovese (FRA) 
2016:  Sejko Fukuoka Naville (FRA) 
2015:  Sejko Fukuoka Naville (FRA) 
2014:  Laurrie Genovese (FRA) 
2013: Keiko Hiraki (JPN) 
2012:  Nicole Fedele (ITA) 
2011: Petra Slivova (CZE) 
2010: Petra Slivova (CZE) 
2009: Keiko Hiraki (JPN)

Tour Format 

| Man |  

2008:  Andy Aebi (SUI) 
2007:  Christian Maurer (SUI) 
2006:  Christian Maurer (SUI) 
2005:  Christian Maurer (SUI) 
2004:  Oliver Rössel (GER) 
2003:  Achim Joos (GER) 
2002:  Alex Hofer (SUI) 
2001:  Patrick Bérod (FRA) 
2000:  Andy Hediger (SUI) 
1999:  Kari Eisenhut (SUI) 
1998:  Peter Lüthi (SUI) 
1997:  Jimmy Pacher (ITA) 
1996:  Christian Tamegger (AUT) 
1995:  Hans Bollinger (SUI) 
1994:  Jimmy Pacher (ITA) 
1993:  Richard Gallon (FRA) 
1992:  Uli Wiesmeier (GER)

| Women | 

2008:  Anja Kroll (CHE) 
2007: Anja Kroll (CHE) 
2006:  Karin Appenzeler (SUI) 
2005:  Ewa Wisniewksa (GER) 
2004: Petra Slivova (CZE) 
2003: Petra Slivova (CZE) 
2002: Petra Slivova (CZE) 
2001: Louise CRANDAL (DNK) 
2000: Louise CRANDAL (DNK) 
1999: Sandie Cochepain (FRA) 
1998: Claire Bernier(FRA) 
1997: Claire Bernier(FRA) 
1996: Nanou Berger (FRA) 
1995: Camilla Pemer (AUT) 
1994: Nanou Berger (FRA) 
1993: Camilla Pemer (AUT) 
1992: Nanou Berger (FRA)

 
Paragliding World Cup Continental Champions

Europe

2011: | Nicolas Rieusset FRA | Seiko Fukuoka Naville FRA
2012: | Marco Littame ITA | Klaudia Bulgakow POL

America

2011: | Nicholas Greece USA | Camila Antonorsi VEN
2012: | Raul Penso VEN | Camila Antonorsi VEN

Asia

2011
Ayumu Miyata JPN
Junghun Park KOR
Paragliding World Cup Association 2024
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