Faster than a Bugatti. With no engine.

Speed skydiving is the fastest non-motorised sport on Earth. Competitors dive head-first out of a plane and try to hit the highest speed they can. The world's best go over 540 km/h.

--comp average over 8 rounds, km/h
(each round is a fastest 3-second average)
--top speed in comp window, km/h
(highest single speed inside the scoring window)
--G-2: top speed overall, km/h
(highest anywhere in the jump, even outside the window)

Three different measures. The average is your comp score across all 8 rounds, with each round counted as its fastest 3-second average. Top speed in comp window is the single highest speed you hit inside the scoring window. G-2 is the highest speed hit anywhere in the jump, even outside the window.

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Start with how a speed jump works. It takes two minutes to read and needs no skydiving knowledge.

The journey

Competitions, training, and every step towards 500, as it happens.

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How speed skydiving works

You jump out, point yourself at the ground, and try to fall as fast as physically possible. Your score is your average speed over your fastest 3 seconds.

1. Exit

4,000 m

You leave the plane at around 13,000 to 14,000 feet. That is about 4 km above the ground.

2. Dive

You fly head-down in a tight, streamlined shape. Less drag means more speed. Everything from your suit to your helmet is designed to slice through the air.

3. Score

3 seconds

Only your fastest 3-second stretch counts. The software finds the best one in about 2,250 m of fall and averages your speed over it.

4. Slow down

1,700 m

Scoring ends at about 1,700 m. You then flare out of the dive, slow down, and open your parachute at a safe height.

The jump at a glance

Exit, 4,000 m Fastest 3 seconds (this is your score) Scoring ends, 1,700 m Slow down and open parachute Ground SCORING WINDOW
Illustrative only. The window opens just after exit, once you are falling at 10 m/s. The fastest 3 seconds usually come near the end of the window, once you have built up full speed.

How fast is 500 km/h?

A belly-to-earth skydive sits around 200 km/h. Going head-down more than doubles that, and passes the fastest train in regular service, a Formula 1 car and a falcon in a dive.

At 500 km/h you fall about 139 metres every second. In the three scoring seconds that is over 400 metres, more than the height of most skyscrapers.

Why is it hard?

  • Body position has to be almost perfect, and it changes as you go faster.
  • The air gets thicker as you fall, which pushes back harder.
  • Every tiny wobble costs speed. A few centimetres of arm or head movement matters.
  • You get one go per round and only three seconds count.
Is it safe? Speed skydivers follow strict altitude rules, use the same safety equipment as every skydiver (main parachute, reserve and automatic activation device), and train progressively. Nobody jumps straight into a 500 km/h dive.

FlySight and scoring

How do you prove how fast you fell? You wear a small GPS unit on your helmet, then judges and software work out your score from the data.

FlySight

FlySight is a tiny GPS tracker that sits on the helmet. It records your position and height many times every second for the whole jump. It is the device used for speed skydiving worldwide.

The data

After landing, the data file is loaded into scoring software. It shows your speed through the whole dive as a graph, so you can see exactly where you gained or lost speed.

The score

The software slides a 3-second window along your jump and finds the stretch with the highest average speed. That best stretch is your score.

Sample tracks

Real FlySight data from my jumps. Tap an image to see it full size.

The FlySight itself

Competition scoring and records

There are two different ways to talk about "the fastest". They are not the same thing.

Competition jumps

G-1

Each jump is one round, and each round is scored as your fastest 3-second average. The Open event is 8 rounds, and your total comes from all of them. The results list shows the average across the rounds, so one lucky jump does not win. Consistency does.

Real example, from the 2026 Worlds: the winner's 8 rounds were 541.47, 545.09, 536.62, 539.50, 540.77, 543.89, 543.13 and 534.26 km/h. Averaged, that is 540.59 km/h.

The FAI keeps two competition records: highest average speed (the best single round) and highest overall average speed (averaged across the rounds). At the 2026 World Championships in Eloy, Arizona, Sebastián García Gutiérrez of Spain flew 545.09 km/h in one round and averaged 540.59 km/h over the 8 rounds. That beats the earlier marks of 539.51 and 536.75 km/h, which he set in August 2025.

G-2 record

Top speed

The G-2 class is the FAI's performance records. The speed skydiving one is maximum vertical speed without a drogue. It is simply the highest speed you reach at any single moment of the jump. There is no 3-second average and no rounds.

"Without a drogue" means no small stabilising parachute is used to hold you in position. The last record I found listed is 555.23 km/h, also by Sebastián García Gutiérrez, set in August 2025. It may have been beaten at the 2026 Worlds, so check the FAI records page.

It is higher than the competition record because one peak moment always beats an average.

Records come from the FAI list and the 2026 Worlds results when this page was written. New marks can take time to be ratified, so check the FAI records page for the latest.

The rules in plain English

Simplified from the FAI Competition Rules for Speed Skydiving, 2026 edition (effective 1 March 2026). Rules are updated regularly, so check fai.org for the current edition.

How I use it

My journey

Timeline

Competition history

DateCompetitionLocationBest scoreResult

Training

Photos

Gear