I have nothing against the Olympic spirit—but ...

Dear Reader

Almost every year—or, more accurately, “used to”—new model aircraft world championship categories are created within our international air sports federation, the FAI. At the moment, however, the CIAM General Assembly has decided on a four-year moratorium. Moratoriums are usually an expression of helplessness—and a lack of decision-making ability as well. The majority of countries are already unable to finance all the World and European Championship participations of their increasingly large number of teams. One thing is certain: the FAI will not be able to prevent technological progress and the resulting emergence of new model aircraft competition classes. Organizations outside the FAI will be only too happy to step into the gap. There are already numerous categories that—likely for a variety of reasons—do not wish to operate under the FAI’s umbrella.

Incidentally, what’s interesting about this is that participants in non-FAI events rarely—if ever—receive financial support from their national federations—yet they still participate, and there are quite a few of them.

In our case, team members, volunteers, and even the team leader receive, in my view, quite generous financial support from our Swiss Federation if they have been selected through the regular process—though this is independent of their performance level and readiness. Unfortunately, in some classes in our country, the pool of top-level pilots is very narrow, and in some cases, the overall level of performance is rather modest. This should by no means imply that our pilots are not allowed to compete in World Championships in all classes. That would be the wrong approach, if only for the sake of developing young talent and gaining experience. Rather, the level of financial support should be proportional to

performance demonstrated on the international stage. For example, a selected team member could earn points at open international FAI championships or World Cup events. Those with more points would receive higher compensation; those with fewer points would receive correspondingly less or nothing at all. I cannot imagine that, in the long term, we will be able to finance our World Championship teams according to the “scattergun” principle; for this would be the opposite of promoting sports and nurturing young talent. I have nothing against the Olympic ideal, but personal performance and the level of financial support must urgently be brought into a meaningful and athletically fair relationship.

Sincerely,
Emil Ch. Giezendanner

The opinions expressed on this page by the editor—as well as by other authors of this issue—do not necessarily reflect the official position of the SMV. Readers can find official association announcements in the “SMV” section.