Skydiving in Madhya Pradesh

Reviewed profileAchievements, tournaments, coaches and FAQs on this page are compiled by hand from federation, government and press reporting, drawing on Wikipedia — Shital Mahajan, World Parachuting Championships, Grokipedia — Shital Mahajan, Shital Mahajan official site (skydivershitalmahajan.com) — life journey, records and licences, Phoenix Adventure Sports Academy (phoenixadventuresportsacademy.com), Explore Himalaya — Everest Skydive 2023 report, YourStory — Nav-wari saree skydive, FAI nomination, Pune Pulse, Deccan Herald — recent jumps and records. These are not cited to individual documents: we hold no per-claim source for them, so treat dates, counts and career records here as a summary rather than a reference. Sections we hold nothing for are left empty. Sport pages last reviewed as a set: September 2026.

Overview

Origin: Modern
Category: Adventure
Olympic discipline: No
Paralympic discipline: No
Central pathway: Federation and state pathway
Athlete profiles on SportSupport: 2

Governance and status

Each field below is shown only where we hold a source for it; anything else reads “Not currently verified” rather than a guess. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition is granted year by year, so it is only ever shown with the year it applies to. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Indian governing/organising body: Aero Club of India
Ministry recognition: Not currently verified
International federation: Not currently verified
Khelo India inclusion: Not currently verified
TOPS eligibility: Not currently verified
Olympic status: Not on the Olympic programme
Paralympic status: Not a Paralympic discipline

Skydiving is listed on SportSupport in the adventure category. Its recorded origin is Modern. It is not on the Olympic programme. We list Aero Club of India as the Indian governing/organising body for the sport.

Skydiving has a federation and state-level pathway in India, and athletes selected through Aero Club of India may be eligible for state sports-quota employment and state cash awards where their state notifies the discipline. TOPS does not apply, as the discipline is outside the Olympic programme.

Scholarships & Funding

Central, state and private scholarships available for skydiving athletes in India.

Khelo India Talent Identification & Development (KITID)
Stipend, boarding, coaching and kit at accredited centres for talent identified through the Khelo India selection process (Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports). Applies only to disciplines on the official Khelo India Games list, and only to athletes it selects.
National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)
Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports fund used to sponsor elite athletes' training, foreign coaches and equipment. Allocations are made case by case; we hold no record of NSDF support specific to skydiving.
Pension for Meritorious Sportspersons
Lifetime monthly pension for retired internationals who meet the scheme's medal criteria at Asian, Commonwealth or World Championship level — Government of India. Whether a given skydiving event counts depends on the scheme's notified list.
State sports quota and government employment
Many states reserve government and public-sector posts for national-level medallists. Which skydiving events and which certifying bodies a state accepts varies by state, so check your state's current notification.

Explore all government schemes →

Indian Players

2 profiles

Browse the full athlete directory →

Rules

Competitive skydiving is judged discipline by discipline rather than as a single event. Formation skydiving scores the number of correctly completed formations within working time, verified from a camera flyer's video; canopy formation is judged the same way under canopy. Accuracy landing measures distance from a target disc in centimetres, freefall style times a set sequence of turns and loops, canopy piloting scores speed, distance and accuracy through a course over water, speed skydiving measures maximum vertical velocity, and artistic events (freefly, freestyle) are scored by judges on execution and presentation. All jumps run under organizer safety rules covering minimum licence level, gear checks, automatic activation devices, deployment altitudes, aircraft exit order and weather holds.

Authoritative rulebook: Aero Club of India. Age-group and school-level variations are published by SGFI and the state associations each season.

Positions

Typical roles across adventure sports. These are category-level descriptions, not a sourced skydiving squad list.

Lead / boulder / speed (climbing)
The three Olympic sport-climbing disciplines with different scoring.
Pilot & tandem pilot (air disciplines)
Competitive and instructional pilot roles.
Expedition & alpine roles
Lead climber, guide, high-altitude porter and base-camp manager.

Equipment

Standard kit and infrastructure required to train and compete in skydiving at a federation-recognised event.

Main canopy and reserve parachute in a certified harness/container, packed or inspected by a rated rigger
Automatic activation device (AAD) and audible plus visual altimeters
Helmet (full-face or open-face) and goggles; jumpsuit matched to discipline — grippy suits for formation work, slick or wingsuits for speed and wingsuit events
Oxygen system for high-altitude jumps above roughly 15,000 feet
Camera flyer with helmet-mounted cameras for judged formation and artistic events

Governing/organising body

Body listed on SportSupport

Aero Club of India

Aero Club of India is the body we list as the Indian governing/organising body for Skydiving, and state associations affiliated to it run age-group competition. We hold no current-year Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition record for it, so this is not a statement of current recognition — recognition is granted year by year.

Origin: Modern
Olympic: No
Paralympic: No
Category: Adventure

All federations →

Major Indian Events

Domestic competitions we hold a source for in skydiving.

National Skydiving Championship
India's first was held at Amreli, Gujarat from 1 to 5 May 2016 — remarkably late for a sport practised by the armed forces for decades. Shital Mahajan was part of the organising team and completed the Skydiving Judge Course there alongside six Indian armed forces officers. Aero sports in India fall under the Aero Club of India, which nominates Indian athletes for international aeronautical honours.
Structure
Competitive skydiving in India is thin outside the armed forces. Civilian access runs through a small number of drop zones and private academies — Mahajan founded the Phoenix Adventure Sports Academy — and most serious Indian jumpers train and license abroad.

International Events

Continental and world-level competitions we hold a source for in skydiving.

FAI Sabiha Gökçen Medal
Shital Mahajan received this Fédération Aéronautique Internationale honour on 25 October 2018 for completing skydives over all seven continents, becoming the first Indian woman to win it. She was nominated by the Aero Club of India.
World Parachuting Championships
The FAI's world championships cover formation skydiving, canopy formation, canopy piloting, wingsuit flying, speed skydiving, artistic events, accuracy landing and freefall style. India's international presence in the sport has come mainly through record attempts and demonstration jumps rather than through championship results.
Everest Skydive
In November 2023 Mahajan jumped from 23,000 feet in front of Mount Everest and landed at Kala Patthar at 17,444 feet, among the highest drop zones in the world, becoming the first woman to skydive in front of the mountain. She also completed a flag jump with the Indian tricolour and landed at Syangboche and Ama Dablam Base Camp.

Leagues

No dedicated professional league is currently catalogued for skydiving. The national championship under Aero Club of India remains the top domestic competition.

All leagues →

International Players

Globally recognised skydiving athletes to know outside India.

The international federation for skydiving maintains the current world ranking — check the federation site for the up-to-date top names.

Career Options

Ways to build a career in skydiving — on the field, on the sidelines and behind the scenes.

Mahajan's entry into the sport is close to unique: on 18 April 2004 she made the first parachute jump of her life with no prior training at all, from 2,400 feet over the Geographic North Pole in the Arctic Circle at minus 37 degrees Celsius, from a Russian Mi-8 helicopter — she had left Pune nine days earlier never having jumped. On 15 December 2006 she repeated the pattern with her first accelerated free fall jump, over Antarctica at minus 38 degrees from a Twin Otter, making her the youngest woman to jump over both poles and the first to do so without trials
Sources differ on her record tally — variously reported as six or eight FAI-certified world records alongside 17 or 18 national records — and on her birthplace, given as both Pune and Jalgaon in Maharashtra
Her formal qualifications came later and abroad: 250 basic parachute training jumps and six hours of vertical wind tunnel work at Skydive Arizona in 2008, sponsored by the Government of Maharashtra, followed by United States Parachute Association A, B, C and D licences, a Coach rating, and national and regional judge ratings in both accuracy and formation skydiving. She was for years India's only civilian woman skydiving coach and judge
Honours have been substantial — the Padma Shri in 2011 at age 28, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2006, and the Shiv Chhatrapati Maharashtra State Sports Special Award — which places skydiving within India's adventure-awards structure rather than its mainstream sports-award system
By late 2023 she had logged around 780 jumps, most from above 13,500 feet, some from 18,000 feet on oxygen and one from 30,500 feet, across eight aircraft types
Realistic career routes are armed forces parachute units, tandem instruction and drop-zone work, adventure tourism, and — as Mahajan has built — motivational speaking off the back of a record-setting profile

Explore sports careers →Coaches directory →

Related academies

0 listed

No skydiving academies are catalogued in the directory yet. Browse the full academy list or list your academy to appear here.

All academies →List your academy →

FAQs

Common questions about skydiving in India.

Who governs Skydiving in India?▾

We list Aero Club of India as the Indian governing/organising body for Skydiving, and state associations affiliated to it run age-group and state-level competition. We hold no current-year Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition record for it, so this is not a statement that it is currently a recognised national sports federation — recognition is granted year by year.

Is Skydiving an Olympic sport?▾

No, Skydiving is not on the Olympic programme.

How do I start playing Skydiving in India?▾

The usual routes are a school team under the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), a college team under the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), or a private academy affiliated to your state association under Aero Club of India. Age-group state championships follow from there.

What government schemes support Skydiving athletes?▾

TOPS does not apply, as Skydiving is outside the Olympic programme. State-government cash awards or sports-quota employment can apply where a state notifies the discipline, which varies by state. Skydiving does not appear on the official Khelo India Games discipline list, so we make no Khelo India claim for it.

Skydiving in every state & UT

Dedicated pages for Skydiving in each Indian state and Union Territory — academies, schemes, athletes and how to start.