posted Feb 22nd, 2019 - The NSL News covered the recently awarded SKYDIVER OF THE YEAR trophy a few days ago. Ben Liston was last year's honor recipient, and the NSL News mentioned a few other skydivers who had received the same trophy from Mike Truffer's and Sue Clifton's Skydiving Magazine in the earlier years.

The NSL News promised to follow up with a longer list, and Sue Clifton provided the names of all rewarded skydivers since the first trophy was given to Patrick de Gayardon in 1991, before Skydiving Magazine was discontinued in 2008, and before the National Skydiving League resumed the tradition with the same trophies in 2014.

Sue Clifton had forwarded the remaining trophies to the National Skydiving League, who decided to continue the SKYDIVER OF THE YEAR tradition in memory of the late Mike Truffer.

The NSL News mentioned earlier that most of the rewarded skydivers were also Formation Skydiving competitors, and it was naturally not difficult for the National Skydiving League to find the people who deserved recognition for their outstanding contributions to the sport.

YEAR	SKYDIVER OF THE YEAR
1991	Patrick de Gayardon
1992	Guy Manos
1993	Andy Peckett
1994	Tony Uragallo
1995	Cheryl Stearns
1996	Kevin Vetter
1997	Scott Rhodes
1998	Arizona Airspeed
1999	B.J. Worth
2000	Kurt Gaebel
2001	Chris Gay
2002	Rusty Vest
2003	Loic Jean-Albert
2004	-
2005	Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo
2006	Natasha Montgomery
2007	Christy Frikken

Style and Accuracy legend Cheryl Stearns followed 4-way and 8-way legend Tony Uragallo in 1995, and another life-saving Canopy Formation rescue by Kevin Vetter was recognized in 1996.

Then it was time for the next Formation Skydiving competitor in 1997. Scott Rhodes was one of the Golden Knights team captains who guided the U.S. Army's 8-way team in the "Decade of Excellence", as Brian "BK" Krause reminded the NSL News of the time period (1987 - 1997) when the Golden Knights won six consecutive 8-way gold medals for the U.S. delegations.

Brian Krause started a new "Decade of Excellence" with new FAI 8-way gold medals in 2012, and Sean Sweeney followed up with three more gold medals for the Golden Knights in 2014, 2016 and 2018.

Arizona Airspeed was the first team that was honored with the complete lineup by Skydiving Magazine in 1998. The original team members Jack Jefferies, Dan BC, Kirk Verner, and Mark Kirkby had won 4-way gold medals for the United States in 1995 and 1997. They were in the middle of their preparations to defend their title in 1999 when they became the SKYDIVERS OF THE YEAR in 1998.

Airspeed ended up in 2nd place behind France in 1999, while World Team organizer and 8-way world champion BJ Worth was the SKYDIVER OF THE YEAR in 1999.

FAI World Meet 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		9,24,A	O,M,2,Q	14,P,11	19,3,15	N,8,12	C,1,E,20	K,23,17	B,16,21	L,22,J,7	G,5,6	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	23	18	19	18	24	21	21	21	20	208	20.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	24	19	16	17	26	19	19	20	19	202	20.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	21	23	16	17	16	23	20	19	20	16	191	19.1
4	Sebastian XL	UK	21	23	16	17	17	23	18	17	20	18	190	19.0
5	Russia	RU	22	20	13	16	16	17	18	17	18	15	172	17.2
6	Australia	AU	20	21	15	15	14	19	17	17	15	16	169	16.9
7	Daedalus	DE	18	18	13	13	14	18	15	14	16	16	155	15.5
8	Italy	IT	19	16	11	14	9	20	16	13	14	-	132	14.7
9	Japan	JP	15	18	11	12	12	15	15	14	14	-	126	14.0
10	Spain	ES	12	18	12	13	13	15	11	15	16	-	125	13.9
11	Hungary	HU	15	18	13	11	12	15	14	12	11	-	121	13.4
12	Belgium	BE	15	17	10	13	11	14	12	12	15	-	119	13.2
13	Denmark	DK	14	16	10	11	12	17	12	13	13	-	118	13.1
14	J5	ZA	14	15	11	11	12	14	11	13	-	-	101	12.6
15	Switzerland	CH	9	14	11	10	11	13	13	14	-	-	95	11.9
16	Netherlands	NL	12	15	6	11	11	10	10	14	-	-	89	11.1
17	Monkey Circus	AT	13	7	9	11	10	15	9	12	-	-	86	10.8
18	New Zealand	NZ	12	11	6	7	9	11	10	9	-	-	75	9.4
19	Canada	CA	11	12	7	9	7	11	7	5	-	-	69	8.6
20	Israel	IL	10	13	8	4	9	11	6	7	-	-	68	8.5
21	Portugal	PT	10	10	6	5	8	8	8	8	-	-	63	7.9
22	Slovakia	SK	7	9	7	5	8	8	9	9	-	-	62	7.8
23	Thailand	TH	9	5	0	5	6	3	8	4	-	-	40	5.0
24	Zimbabwe	ZW	5	5	4	1	2	5	3	4	-	-	29	3.6
25	Cyprus	CY	5	5	2	2	2	6	3	0	-	-	25	3.1

Mike Truffer, Sue Clifton and the Skydiving Magazine readership then recognized the efforts of the National Skydiving League in its fourth year, when NSL founder Kurt Gaebel received his trophy for the year 2000.

Chris Gay, Canopy Formation competitor and organizer, saved another jumper's life under canopy and received the trophy in 2001, before the next Golden Knights member was rewarded in 2002. Rusty Vest won his 8-way gold medals many years ago and had focused on safety procedures at break-off time for the big-way organizers. He has been working for Performance Designs after leaving the U.S. Army and a few years of rigging services in DeLand.

Loic Jean-Albert interrupted the next series of achievers in Formation Skydiving. He was the first skydiver who flew a wingsuit down the side of a steep mountain, which has become one of the most spectacular parts of popular skydiving stunts.

Sue Clifton had no record available for the award in 2004, and the next three SKYDIVERS OF THE YEAR (2005 - 2006 - 2007) are well known in the Formation Skydiving world. In fact, Shannon Pilcher, Natasha Montgomery and Christy Frikken all had their NSL Profiles posted, as well, before they received their SKYDIVER OF THE YEAR trophies.

Christy Frikken won the award even without a world championship title in her belt, and she would be the last recipient before Skydiving Magazine closed the doors in DeLand. Six years went by before the next SKYDIVER OF THE YEAR was recognized by the National Skydiving League, Lori Connor in 2014.