CHANGING THE FORMAT, WHY ?
The purpose of the World Cup is to propose a competition with ALL top pilots from the world.
After 18 years of World Cup tour, things have changed and this goal is not fullfilled anymore.
1. A real WORLD event ?
No, the World Cup is mainly european as the cost of the all tour for a non-european pilot is very high. Some europeans pilots also cannot afford it (or only a few years).
The goal is to make the participation to the World Cup less expensive for everybody.
2. ALL top pilots ?
No, the World Cup now doesn’t gather ALL top pilots. As it is time consuming, some top pilots don’t take part or only to a few events (Maurer, Tamegger, Donini, Pacher, Cox, Bérod, Goldsmith, Rössel, and many others). This situation is growing worse every year.
3. Earth friendly ?
No, the number of internationals flights makes the actual World Cup tour the biggest polluting event in paragliding.
3 pilots flying from Europe to Argentina are emitting the same quantity of C02 (3 x 5.5 T) as 80 pilots going from Europe to Europe sharing cars.
4. Media friendly ?
With five events, without all top pilots, without big changes since years, the attention is not as high as it should be. The overall results of the actual World Cup has not enough impact.
THE NEW WORLD CUP FORMAT
Voted by pilots on June 19 th (Yes = 79,1 %), the new system will start in 2009.
1. To start, the WORLD CUP 2009 will consist of :
European World Cup Tour : e.g. : 3 events
Asian World Cup Tour : e.g. : 2 events
Panamerican World Cup Tour : e.g. 2 events
other World Cup Events in Africa, Oceania, if possible, in the following years...
2. The SUPERFINAL :
The first SUPERFINAL will be at the end of the 2009 season ( The next one will be in 2010, then probably every two years.)
Pilots :
100 top male pilots
15-20 top female pilots (according to female pilots level)
Proposed duration : 10-12 days
Entry Fee : Cheap for pilots
Location : Well known site, very good organization, media plan.
Bad Weather :
NO bad weather ! ;-)
But, just in case, the organizers must be ready to move to a better place. A back up site must be prepared. In that case, the PWCA will provide financial and logistical additional help to the organizers and pilots.
Medias and sponsors :
The idea is to make the World Cup Superfinal much more important and media friendly. The Superfinal must be the Biggest Event of All Times, with the top 100 male pilots and top female pilots.
The continental title (European, Asian, American,...) will also be media and sponsors friendly.
How to enter the Superfinal ? :
The selection will be based on results from the World Cup Events of the previous season.
First Selection :
Male pilots : the top 15 pilots of every european World Cup, the top 10 of american and asian World Cups will be selected.
Female pilots : the top 3 in European World Cups and Top 1 in Asian and American World Cups will be immediately selected
These pilots will know immediately that they are selected.
Second Selection :
According to the level of each World Cup, the remaining places will be filled with the next pilots. The top 25 male pilots and the top 5-6 female pilots of a high level World Cup have 99 % chance to be selected.
For these pilots, the selection will be confirmed at the end of the last World Cup of the season.
On the first year, to guarantee the highest level, wildcards can be accepted for “paragliding legends” (ex PWCA or FAI World Champions)
How to enter the World Cup events ? :
Same as now, selection will be based on results with a similar selection system.
The selection for the Superfinal will be difficult (The real top 100 !) but the selection for European, Asian and American World Cups will allow more pilots to take part.
Discards :
The discard system is still on discussion. E.g. : same as now at the beginning, and then no discard at the end of the competition to make the understanding of the ranking easier for the pilots, media and public.
The PWCA Committee
or here to discuss the New World Cup format on our forums
