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The Italian Armin Senoner, who is planning to break François Bon's 2006 speedriding world record mid-March, met up with the French record holder in Chamonix.
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The two sportsmen have known each other for years, and have always showed mutual respect towards each other's sport and achievements. This is why Armin had an idea of speedriding at 150 km/h (93,206 mph) to attempt and break the record that Bon's set in 2006, which was to land at 146,46km/h (91,006mph) from the height of 3859 meter of the top of the Konigspitze mountain.
The athletes had a chance to finally talk about the preparations for this big event during this meeting in Chamonix, where Bon shared his experience and skill set with Senoner, which enabled him to break the record.
Speedriding is a sport that has combined elements of paragliding and skiing, and both Armin and Francois are professionals at this new extreme sport. Frenchman François Bon has been skiing for almost 41 years, and has been paragliding since 1986, not surprisingly within a short time he became an instructor as well.
François is nationally recognised in the world of both paragliding and speedriding, and thanks to his talent and knowledge he has become a member of FFVL, which is the sport body that organises the events, regulates as well as represents the five types of flying sports in France and on international platforms too. Bon also acts as a judge at the FAI, the organisation with the aim of furthering aeronautical and astronautical activities worldwide, ratifying world and continental records and coordinating the organisation of international competitions.
So, the reason why this could be interesting is that in preparation to these big events of world speedriding Armin's manager, Bartolomeus Kohl has had many meetings to discuss the technical conditions and how the rules evolve with the FAI. In addition it is interesting to know that the French sportsman acts as a senior referee on the World Air Games.
Additionally, Bon received the Adrenaline Awards in 2008 from the National Geographic, then he won the French speedriding cup in 2010, and he was also the first one to ride the Mont Blanc, Eiger, amongst others like Aconcagua. Since François Bon is an internationally recognised speedrider, the challenge of breaking the set record in 2006 means a great deal to Armin Senoner.
Armin is not unknown to the extreme conditions either, and as we all know to break any world record you have to be both physically and mentally prepared. Not only is this pro skier good in the air but also he is very familiar with mountaineering. In 2013, he went on an expedition in the Himalayas, where they ended up saving a person's life but amazingly not only did they just save his life under harsh mountain conditions but reached also a new world record of rescuing at this high altitude, the world highest rescuing since then is at 7800 meter and in the hands of Senoner and his team.
His Himalayas life saving expedition was helped by Maurizio Folini, who was the pilot of their helicopter. Folini has over 9000 hours flying time to his experience, and just like Armin, is a 'mountain leader' and has a wide range of experience leading mountain rescue searches under extreme circumstances. Having lived in the Sulden area, he is more than familiar with the upcoming world record attempt in the area of the Stelvio National Park planned by Armin Senoner. Furthermore, due to many of their collaborations, Senoner has asked Folini to take him to the top of 3859 meter Konigspitze mountain in Italy where the competition will be held. Hence he is providing Armin's safe transportation to the event to be able to support his attempt of breaking the world record in the heart of the Stelvio National Park in mid-March.
