# World Hot Air Ballooning Championships

The World Hot Air Ballooning Championships are the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Hot Air Balloon Championship and the FAI Women's World Hot Air Balloon Championship. These biennial events for hot air ballooning are conducted under the direction of the FAI Ballooning Commission (CIA or Comité International d'Aérostation).

## Championships
### FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship

| Year | City | Country | Date | Winners | No. of Athletes | No. of Nations |
| 1973 | Albuquerque | United States | February 10–17 | Dennis Flodden (USA) Bill Cutter (USA) Janne Balkedal (SWE) | 32 | 14 |
| 1975 | Albuquerque | United States | October 2–12 | David Schaffer (USA) Janne Balkedal (SWE) Peter Vizzard (AUS) | 34 | 15 |
| 1977 | Castle Howard | Great Britain | September 10–18 | Paul Woessner (USA) Bruce Comstock (USA) Michael Scudder (USA) | 51 | 22 |
| 1979 | Uppsala | Sweden | January 3–9 | Paul Woessner (USA) Sid Cutter (USA) Olivier Roux-Devillas (FRA) | 33 | 16 |
| 1981 | Battle Creek | United States | June 20–28 | Bruce Comstock (USA) David Bareford (GBR) Jan Balkedal (SWE) | 82 | 21 |
| 1983 | Nantes | France | August 28 – September 7 | Peter Vizzard (AUS) Olivier Roux-Devillas (FRA) David Bareford (GBR) | 70 | 20 |
| 1985 | Battle Creek | United States | July 12–20 | David Levin (USA) Crispin Williams (GBR) Bill Cunningham (USA) | 98 | 23 |
| 1987 | Schielleiten/Stubenberg | Austria | September 5–12 | Al Nels (USA) Josef Starkbaum (AUT) Leopold Hauer (AUT) | 71 | 24 |
| 1989 | Saga | Japan | November 18–27 | Benedikt Haggeney (GER) Al Nels (USA) Bruce Comstock (USA) | 102 | 25 |
| 1991 | Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu | Canada | August 10–18 | Al Nels (USA) Uwe Schneider (GER) Uwe Claussen (GER) | 101 | 26 |
| 1993 | Larochette | Luxembourg | August 12–22 | Alan Blount (USA) Owen Keown (USA) Joe Heartsill (USA) | 101 | 32 |
| 1995 | Battle Creek | United States | June 30 – July 8 | Joe Heartsill (USA) Phil Glebe (USA) David Levin (USA) | 86 | 32 |
| 1997 | Saga | Japan | November 15–27 | David Bareford (GBR) Janne Balkedal (SWE) Joe Heartsill (USA) | 112 | 38 |
| 1999 | Bad Waltersdorf | Austria | August 28 – September 5 | Bill Arras (USA) Uwe Schneider (GER) Gintaras Šurkus (LTU) | 90 | 35 |
| 2002 | Châtellerault | France | August 23 – September 1 | David Bareford (GBR) Steve Jones (USA) Jan Balkedal (SWE) | 99 | 36 |
| 2004 | Mildura | Australia | June 26 - July 3 | Markus Pieper (GER) Uwe Schneider (GER) Paul Gibbs (AUS) | 87 | 32 |
| 2006 | Tochigi | Japan | November 18–25 | John Petrehn (USA) Joe Heartsill (USA) Uwe Schneider (GER) | 62 | 31 |
| 2008 | Hofkirchen | Austria | September 13–20 | Francois Messines (FRA) Alexey Medvedsky (RUS) Stephane Bolze (FRA) | 102 | 33 |
| 2010 | Debrecen | Hungary | October 2–10 | Johnny Petrehn (USA) Nick Donner (USA) Stefan Zeberli (SUI) | 118 | 31 |
| 2012 | Battle Creek | United States | August 17–25 | Nick Donner (USA) Johnny Petrehn (USA) Yudai Fujita (JPN) | 99 | 30 |
| 2014 | Rio Claro | Brazil | July 17–27 | Yudai Fujita (JPN) Uwe Schneider (GER) Lupercio Lima (BRA) | 59 | 21 |
| 2016 | Saga | Japan | October 30 – November 7 | Rhett Heartsill (USA) Rimas Kostiuškevičius (LTU) Stefan Zeberli (SUI) | 105 | 31 |
| 2018 | Groß-Siegharts | Austria | August 18–26 | Dominic Bareford (GBR) Stefan Zeberli (SUI) Sergey Latypov [ru] (RUS) | 105 | 38 |
| 2022 | Murska Sobota | Slovenia | September 18–22 | Stefan Zeberli (SUI) Yudai Fujita (JPN) Nicolas Schwartz (FRA) | 103 | 31 |
| 2024 | Szeged | Hungary | September 8–13 | Clément Seigeot (FRA) Tomasz Filus (POL) Joe Heartsill (USA) | 118 | 28 |
| 2026 | Krosno | Poland | | | | |

#### Team competition (since 2018)

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 2018 Austria Groß-Siegharts | Russia Sergey Latypov [ru] Ivan Menyaylo [ru] Evgeny Chubarov Andrey Kulkov | 640,4 | Belgium David Spildooren Steven Vlegels | 640,3 | Australia Nicola Scaife Matthew Scaife Sean Kavanagh Andrew Robertson | 638,2 |
| 2022 Slovenia Murska Sobota | France Nicolas Schwartz Jean-Philippe Odouard Clément Seigeot Laure De Coligny | 642,2 | Japan Yudai Fujita Shiro Katahira Sansei Tomizawa Satoshi Ueda | 614 | Switzerland Stefan Zeberli Marc Blaser René Erni Cedric Gauch Roman Hugi Nicole Vogel | 598 |
| 2024 Hungary Szeged | USA Bruce Wood Cameron Wall Chase Donner Jeremy Rubin Joe Heartsill Joe Zvada Johnny R. Petrehn Lucas Heartsill Nick Donner Rhett Heartsill | 644,1 | France Clément Seigeot Paul Cuenot Etienne Mercier Jean-Philippe Odouard Nicolas Philippe Michel Bourbier Nicolas Schwartz | 619,8 | Belgium Arthur Alleman David Spildooren Kenian Dekein Maarten Deleersnyder Steven Vlegels Thomas Spildooren | 595,4 |

### FAI Women's World Hot Air Balloon Championship

| Year | City | Country | Date | Winners | No. of Athletes | No. of Nations |
| 2014 | Leszno | Poland | September 8–13 | Nicola Scaife (AUS) Elisabeth Kindermann (AUT) Agnė Simonavičiūtė (LTU) | 38 | 16 |
| 2016 | Birštonas | Lithuania | July 5–10 | Nicola Scaife (AUS) Ann Herdewyn (BEL) Cheri White (USA) | 42 | 20 |
| 2018 | Nałęczów | Poland | August 7–11 | Daria Dudkiewicz (POL) Agnė Simonavičiūtė (LTU) Nicola Scaife (AUS) | 33 | 10 |
| 2023 | Northam | Australia | September 4–9 | Nicola Scaife (AUS) Stephanie Hemmings (GBR) Sanne Haarhuis (NED) | 30 | 13 |

## All-time medal table

    Updated after the 2024 World Championships (excluding team competitions).
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | United States | 15 | 10 | 8 | 33 |
| 2 | Australia | 4 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| 3 | Great Britain | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 4 | Germany | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| 5 | France | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 7 | Japan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Poland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Sweden | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 10 | Lithuania | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 11 | Austria | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 12 | Russia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 13 | Belgium | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | Brazil | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (15 entries) | Totals (15 entries) | 29 | 29 | 29 | 87 |