Congratulations to Lucia Bottari of Italy for entering the Guinness Book of World Records 2004. A true athlete and sportswoman is receiving further praise for her performances and continued contributions to the sport of Speed Skydiving.

"The highest speed ever reached by a woman in a speed skydiving competition is 432.12 kmph (268.5 mph). Italian daredevil Lucia Bottari achieved this record-breaking velocity above Bottens, Switzerland, on September 16, 2002, during the annual Speed Skydiving World Cup.", the 2004 edition of the book says.

Congratulations goes out to Mike Brooke of France as well, but unfortunately for the wrong merit. The Guinness Book inaccurately states:

"The highest speed ever reached in a speed skydiving competition is 524.13 kmph (325.67 mph) by France's Michael Brooke at the Millennium Speed Skydiving Competition over Gap, France, on September 19, 1999."

This is wrong. Whoever informed the Guinness Book of World Records about this was either lying out of personal interest, or was just terribly misinformed. In either case, the damage is done, and this is the first step to rectify that error.

The highest speed reached in a speed skydiving competition BEFORE the change in ways of how we measure speed (in 2000) is 531.77 kmph (330.50 mph) by Italy's Roberto Franceschetti at the World Speed Skydiving Competition over DeLand, USA, in November, 1999.

But Franceschettis World Record, along with Brookes old record and all files of the pre-2000 era, was supposed to have been wiped from the history books following the change in how to measure speed in speed skydiving competitions. Brooke was in the forefront of this change.

Despite this, Mike Brooke has appeared in several ads for a parachute manufacturer (i.e. issues of Skydiving Magazine) boasting about his false world record, and now also in the Guinness Book of World Record 2004.

We can only speculate as to why Brooke continues to portray a false record, and how the Guinness Book of World Records was misinformed about the same inaccuracy, and why they still chose to sanction the false record as a Guinness World Record?

Last year, as the originator of Speed Skydiving, I was contacted by the Guinness Book of World Records. I informed them about the current world record of speed skydiving - Mike Brooke's 495 kmph done over Lille, France, 2002.

Along with the correct information, I also gave them Mike Brookes email adress.

As the originator of speed skydiving, and as one of the many speed skydiving competitors who is working for the acceptance and spread of speed skydiving worldwide, I can not idly sit by and let this pass without a comment.

The facts of this post has been forwarded to Mike Brooke, The Guinness Book of World Records, Skydiving Magazine (and other media), Parachute de France, Larsen & Brusgaard, FAI and the parachuting associations of the world.

For The International Speed Skydiving Association

Ken Hansen, Fabrice Lebiedzinski, Stan Snigir, Mark Calland, Philippe Corthesy.

PS. Mike Brooke replied: "Hello Ken nice to hear from you. Thanks for the info, I didn't even know about it! Hope all is well any way, I've got a lot of work right now and not too much time. See you, Mike".

The ISSA expects Mike Brooke's cooperation in correcting the Guinness World Record error, the use of the wrong record in ads in other publications, and to stop claiming to have a false record as a record in any other places aswell, i.e. the staff-page of his new dropzone.

No reply has been received by The Guinness Book of World Records, yet.