Californian Peter Song made history last month as the first American to win a world championship hang gliding event since the sport took off over 50 years ago.
Song competed against top pilots from around the globe in the World Hang Gliding Class 1 Sport Championship in June. And when it was owner, he was crowned the sport-class hang gliding world champion after only his sixth hang gliding competition. The 2025 hang gliding world championship series concluded in Spain with the second and final competition.
Song’s historic win in Italy is unprecedented not only because it represents the first-ever world championship victory for the US, but because of Song’s status as a relative newcomer to the sport. Song represents a growing generation of younger hang glider pilots in a sport where most pilots are age 55 and above.
Born in Los Gatos, Song took several hang gliding lessons in 2019, learning to run the triangle-shaped fabric-and-aluminum glider off hillsides and mountaintops. He soon was soaring for hours in the unpowered aircraft. Song, who currently lives in Los Angeles, returned to the sport in 2021 and entered his first competition in 2022. “That sense of freedom from your first mountain flight is hard to ignore for too long,” he recalled.
Hang gliding competitions involve pilots racing through the sky to complete 20 to 100-mile-plus courses defined by GPS locations, relying on updrafts to keep their unpowered gliders aloft. Pilots strive to finish each day’s course quickly for maximum points, yet many land before finishing at all. Pilots must balance racing strategy with the ability to interpret invisible air currents, all while prioritizing safety.
Once seen as a deadly extreme sport, hang gliding has made significant improvements in equipment, training, and safety since the sport began in the 1960s. Modern pilots use professionally manufactured and certified gliders and gear, with instruction in the United States overseen by the US Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association. The sport, one of the most affordable forms of aviation, gives nearly anyone the opportunity to fly like a bird.
Following the sport class world championship in Italy in June, the open-class world championship finished last week in Àger, Spain with Czech pilot Petr Benes taking first place. Hang gliding competitions are divided into three classes–Class 1 Open, Class 1 Sport, and Class 5–based on hang glider type and performance. The world championships take place every two years.
