DENVER — A Denver man recently came home from the Skydiving World Cup in the Czech Republic with a team bronze medal in a sport that involves plummeting more than 200 mph toward the Earth.
Matt Fry, of Denver, earned the medal as part of the United States speed skydiving team. The competition ran from Aug. 19-25 and included several countries.
After a week of competing in August, Fry — who first tried skydiving on his birthday with a friend more than 15 years ago — returned home with the new hardware.
Following that initial jump for his birthday, he learned about professional skydiving, how to move in the sky and perform tricks.
"And I learned what a diverse sport it is," Fry said.
"Skydiving is kind of an escape and, at the same time, an opportunity to focus," he continued. "When you leave the plane, there's so much sensation and the views, the feelings, the noise — everything else in life just disappears."
Fry has competed for years with the artistic freeflying team Polaris. But this year, he decided to try something new — speed skydiving. In this adrenaline-pumping division of the sport, a diver will reach speeds faster than 200 mph as they plummet to the Earth, and then will pull out of the dive and deploy a parachute,
Fry qualified for the recent competition at the 2022 U.S. Parachute Association Nationals, where he won a silver medal in the speed section.
That led him to the World Cup in the Czech Republic this past August, where he and his team earned a bronze medal in the team speed category.
"You're measuring who can go the fastest," he said. "You're measuring your vertical fall rate."
A plane will fly up to 7,400 feet and once a skydiver jumps out, they have a timeframe to achieve the fastest speed they can, averaged over three seconds.
"Man, I started feeling really honored and humbled and really excited," he said. "It's cool to represent our country on the world stage."
Fry works for Skydive Orange Skies in Fort Morgan and has completed more than 5,000 skydives since he began jumping. He has also been involved in 12 of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale large-formation world records. He was the lead organizer in about half of those.
