Media Native Wins Gold At Skydiving Championships

MEDIA, PA — A Media native who set a national skydiving record in 2017 recently won gold at the 2018 U.S. Parachute Association National Collegiate Parachuting Championships.

Media's Thomas Rounds, a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, won gold in both the four-way and six-way formation skydiving events. His six-way team also set a new national record by building a formation in only 8.56 seconds after exiting the airplane.

This year's championships drew 73 collegiate skydivers from around the country to compete for the title of national collegiate champion in four spectacular skydiving disciplines: Formation Skydiving, Vertical Formation Skydiving, Sport Accuracy and Classic Accuracy.

In formation skydiving, the team leaps from an aircraft more than two miles above the ground and then races against the clock to form prescribed geometric formations in freefall before opening their parachutes.

Rounds is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. He has completed more than 600 skydives.

In the 2017 championships, Rounds and his team won gold in the advanced 4-way and 6-way formation skydiving events, according the U.S. Parachute Association. At the same championship event in 2017, his six-way team also set a national record by completing the six-person formation in a mere 9.16 seconds after exiting the airplane.

The Parachute Association National Collegiate Parachuting Championships is the oldest and biggest collegiate skydiving event in the world, held at Skydive Arizona, south of Phoenix.

Photos by David Wybenga/USPA