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Gaebel began skydiving in his native Germany in May of 1980 at a drop zone four hours away from his home in Berlin. Then a semi-pro soccer player ("beer in my blood and a soccer ball glued to my foot"), he tried to stay involved in both sports. But after a year of juggling the two - and one weekend where he almost missed a Sunday soccer game - he decided he loved skydiving more than anything else and devoted himself to the sport. In 1981, Gaebel joined his first 4-way formation skydiving team. He attended his first German National Championships with his 4-way team in 1982, and in 1985, he attended his first world championships in both 4-way and 8-way. But he missed being able to compete more frequently, as he had in soccer, where there was a game every weekend.
As Gaebel got more deeply involved in the sport, he began traveling back and forth from Florida to load organize and train. He also began doing work for canopy manufacturer Performance Designs. (Little known fact: He came up with their tag line "dream of flight.") He met his future wife and mother of his three children at PD, and moved to the U.S. for good in 1993. A full-time skydiver, Gaebel coached formation skydiving and competed for the U.S. (He was on DeLand VNE, which represented the U.S. in 4- and 8-way at the 1996 Federation Aeronautique Internationale World Cup in Belgium.)
Even though he now had plenty of sunny Florida days in which to skydive, he found the same problem in the U.S. as he found in Germany - there weren't many competitions. So, he began devoting himself to providing skydivers with greater opportunities to hone their skills and test them by launching the Florida Skydiving League in the winter of 1996-1997. Then in 1998, Texas and Georgia joined, and Gaebel founded the National Skydiving League. Soon, even more states signed on, and regional skydiving competitions began to spread across the U.S. The NSL now has 20 local organizations that run formation skydiving meets, and Gaebel still personally runs and coaches NSL events in Florida.
When he accepted his award, Gaebel remarked, "I've always been so grateful that USPA was there because they are doing the things I did not want to do - insurance, politics, etc. This allowed me to just run my meets and focus on competition."
Fittingly, Gaebel received his Gold Medal for Meritorious Service following the 4-way formation skydiving medal ceremonies at October's USPA National Skydiving Championships at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. USPA Executive Director Albert Berchtold delivered the framed gold medal to the stage for presentation by Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine of Arizona Airspeed, the team that moments earlier had been crowned U.S. National Champion of 4-Way Formation Skydiving.
Both Hemlin and Markine expressed what Gaebel meant to the FS community and how they both were personally influenced by his contributions. Gaebel was visibly honored and humbled by receiving the medal, the citation on which reads, "For connecting and inspiring formation skydivers in the U.S. and worldwide by hosting competitions, providing news coverage and promoting the sport through the National Skydiving League for 20-plus years.”