The 30th World Gliding Championships are open!

At 2:30p the teams were bussed from the airport to the historic town of Belzig for the opening ceremony. The teams of 34 nations were organized in alphabetic order to march onto a stage at the market square. And yes, it is true, this is the Worlds with the greatest number of nations participating, ever.


Every team was introduced by a Lufthansa flight attendant. Whenever possible, the introduction was in the native language of the team. I heard English, French, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Portugese.


Our flight attendant, Celine was a most charming and remarkable young lady. Daughter of a Tunesian father and an Austrian mother, she is fluent in French, German, English, Italian and Arabic - wow! Her favourite city in Canada is Vancouver with Toronto being second.

Celine led us onto the stage, carrying the Canada sign and introduced us as the crowd was applauding. The organizers had invited all former living world champions, many of whom were sitting behind us on the stage. It was one of these moments that give you goose bumps. I held the Canadian flag high with pride.



The whole ceremony was moderated by a radio host who did an excellent job in keeping it interesting. After all the teams had marched in, local and Aeroclub dignitaries welcomed everyone, followed by the FAI President declaring the 30th World Championships officially open.


We stayed on a bit to mingle with the locals who were quite curious about these strange glider pilots from exotic countries descending on their town. More photos of the opening ceremony are here.

Tomorrow morning the race will start in ernest. Ingo Renner once said: The evening before the competition, every pilot is a potential world champion. With every contest day the number gets smaller until there is only one per class left in the end.