Formation skydiving coach Gary Smith is not a list man. He doesn’t know how exactly many medals he has helped his skydivers win, and couldn’t say where his own gold medals have been stashed away, since he moved to the Netherlands. But even without a CV listing his medal successes, his reputation as a 4-way formation coach with a golden touch did not go unnoticed by the Qatar Formation Skydiving team, with whom he has worked since around 2014. 

FROM KITTENS TO CATS

After elevating the Qatar Tigers to the podium, not just once, but consistently to silver medal position, Smith is now looking to the future generation of Qatari champions among the two junior teams: the Lions and the Cheetahs. His role is to talent spot and nuture team members to step into the Tigers’ shoes as and when their time comes to retire.

“The current Tigers team has been the same for 14 years,” he explains, “so my job is to get a team ready because it won’t be long until those guys will be ending their careers. The US have a big feed pool of younger skydivers and that’s what we’re trying to work towards here in Qatar.”

Gary Smith (right) with the Qatar Tigers 

With heavy investment into the project, there is an expectation to deliver: “There’s a lot of pressure to win medals, for sure, but it is good working with the juniors. It’s a challenge, but a good one.”

Mental and physical performance is managed by the coaches and the physiotherapist. Smith is constantly assessing each member, making sure the right person is in the right team. “With a younger competitor, you can really see their true character when the fatigue sets in. Just like in other sports, that’s part of how we look for those who are the most motivated to compete.”

Which other Middle East countries are focusing on skydiving? Smith notes Oman and Bahrain on the international circuit, as well as the UAE, but at the moment, Qatar is paving the way in skydiving in the region. With significant levels of funding fed into Qatari air sports over the last couple of decades, the Tigers have certainly made a splash in the skydiving world. All the Qatar team skydivers are part of the military, and their success has – like the German and Czech forces teams – been partly due to this consistency of funding: “We are so lucky that we’re continuing in this direction,” Smith explains.

The investment in air sports in Qatar is certainly paying off: their canopy formation skydivers performed extremely well at the recent 2024 FAI World Championships in Style and Accuracy and Canopy Formation in Prostejov, coming top in all three categories: 2-Way Sequential, 4-Way Sequential and 4-Way Rotation. 

The Qatar team celebrate at the 2024 FAI World Championships in Style and Accuracy and Canopy Formation, Prostejov, Czechia

A SMALL COMMUNITY

Air sports have been part of Smith's life since he was a teenager. Indeed, it is almost a family business: his son skydives when he gets the chance, at Texel in the Netherlands, close to where they are based.

As a youngster, Smith declined the option to follow exactly in his father and older brothers’ footsteps and gain a pilot’s license, learning to jump out of planes instead of fly them. “I first jumped when I was 15, nearly 16. I never looked back.”

After a jump with the Qatar Falcons

Despite a focus on studying law, gravity pulled him back to the dropzone again and again. He was selected to represent South Africa at a world meet in 1991, and his team competed until 1997, “when we ran out of money”. Following his own American dream, Smith applied for a US green card in 2002 and secured a US Nationals win in 2003. That led to international champion titles in 2004 and 2006, after which he went into coaching.

During his peripatetic years as an instructor, Smith has trained teams all over the world: After a first “big job” with HayaBusa, with whom he still has close ties, he has coached British teams including all-female NFTO, a 4-way and an 8-way in Germany, rookies in Norway, a Swedish team… And then came the Qatar Tigers.

Smith in front centre with HayaBusa

Although he keeps no track of the medals these teams have won under his tutelage, he is definitely a sought-after coach, significantly boosting his teams’ performances. Generosity sees him sharing his expertise with others at meets, but “it’s a small community, there’s no conflict of interest.”

What’s the secret to his success? “I try to really get on board with my team. We generally achieve what we wanted to,” he modestly states, quickly adding that not all his ventures have resulted in medals.

In and out

So how has skydiving developed during this predominantly glittering career? “When I started back in 1983 it was on a round ‘chute and static line," he laughs. "The tunnels changed everything. To start with, HayaBusa were one of the few teams to specialise in both. Back then an outdoor skydiver could become an indoor champion almost overnight. Since then, indoor has become its own sport and is growing all the time. In outdoor, the top ranked teams have stayed in the sport, basically, those who are more likely to win medals. But the lower ranked or smaller teams sometimes move away from outdoor. Brazil for instance, are less focused on outdoor but are really very good at indoor.”

A balance has been found between indoor and outdoor. The wind tunnels have proven to be a highly efficient way to train a team, quickly and cheaply. Skydivers can do many jumps in a short time and really concentrate on their technique. Smith still spends plenty of time at the tunnels, commenting, “We love going to indoor meets, catching up with people and seeing the up-and-coming superstars."

A self-confessed “outdoor guy”, jumping above an open landscape will never lose its appeal for Smith, who says, “In my opinion, a medal in 4-way outdoor at a world meet remains the most coveted prize.”

This is good news for the Qatar teams who are relying on him to provide the next generation of 4-way outdoor champions. 

With his whole career founded upon the pressure to gain medals, what about his own medals gathering dust? “Well, for me – and I know this is not the same for everyone – the medal is just a gift of thanks, a symbol of everything your whole team have worked towards. Simply becoming a champion, that means more than the medal itself.”

With Team USA in 2005 (on right)

Images supplied by Gary Smith. Header image: Qatar Cheetahs with Gary Smith on right.