# Lilienthal Gliding Medal

Lilienthal Gliding Medal – the highest soaring award in the world, established by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in 1938, and is given at the annual Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) General Conference.
It was created in honour of Otto Lilienthal, a German pioneer of human aviation. It aims "to reward a particularly remarkable performance in gliding, or eminent services to the sport of gliding over a long period of time." The actual Lilienthal Medal was designed by Austrian artist Josef Humplik.
The first winner of the Lilienthal Gliding Medal in the world was Tadeusz Góra for his record-breaking 577.8 kilometres (359.0 miles; 312.0 nautical miles) flight on 18 May 1938, glider PWS-101 from Bezmiechowa to Soleczniki (near Vilnius).
The Medal is awarded by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale via vote of the delegates to the International Gliding Commission at the annual Plenary in March. In 2012, it was decided to end the practice of awarding the Medal for accomplishments of the previous calendar year, and to associate the Medal with the year in which the recipient is determined. Consequently, the year 2013 was not awarded, therefore does not appear in the table below.

## Recipients

Recipients of the International Gliding Commission award, from 1938 to present, include:
| award year | recipient | nationality | notes |
| 1938 | Tadeusz Góra | Poland | for a goal flight of 577.8 kilometres (359.0 miles; 312.0 nautical miles) |
| 1948 | Lt. Per-Axel Persson | Sweden | |
| 1949 | John C. Robinson | United States | |
| 1950 | William S. Ivans | United States | |
| 1951 | Marcelle Choisnet-Gohard | France | |
| 1952 | Charles Atger | France | |
| 1953 | Victor M. Iltchenko | USSR | flight of 520 miles (450 nautical miles; 840 kilometres), a world two-seater record, from Moscow to Stalingrad |
| 1954 | Philip A. Wills | United Kingdom | |
| 1955 | Dr. Joachim Küttner | Germany | |
| 1956 | Dr. Paul B. MacCready Jr. | United States | |
| 1957 | Don Luis Vicente Juez Gomez | Spain | |
| 1958 | Wolf Hirth | Germany | |
| 1959 | Richard E. Schreder | United States | |
| 1960 | Pelagia Majewska | Poland | |
| 1961 | Adolph 'Pirat' Gehriger | Switzerland | |
| 1962 | Paul F. Bikle | United States | |
| 1963 | Heinz Huth | Germany | |
| 1964 | Alvin H. Parker | United States | |
| 1965 | Edward Makula | Poland | |
| 1966 | Anne Burns | United Kingdom | |
| 1967 | Lennart Stahlfors | Sweden | |
| 1968 | Alejo Williamson | Chile | |
| 1969 | Eric Nessler | France | |
| 1970 | Hans-Werner Grosse | Germany | |
| 1971 | Karl H. Striedieck | United States | |
| 1972 | Jan Wróblewski | Poland | twice World Champion, 1965 Open and 1972 Standard Class |
| 1973 | Mrs. Ann Welch | United Kingdom | |
| 1974 | August Hug | Switzerland | |
| 1975 | Adela Dankowska | Poland | for her world records & winning the 1975 International Women's Gliding Competition |
| 1976 | Louis A. de Lange | Netherlands | |
| 1977 | George B. Moffat, Jr. | United States | |
| 1978 | Helmut Reichmann | Germany | |
| 1980 | Hans Wolf | Austria | |
| 1981 | George Lee | United Kingdom | World gliding champion on three consecutive occasions |
| 1982 | Hans Nietlispach | Switzerland | |
| 1984 | C.E. Wallington | Australia | |
| 1985 | Sholto Hamilton 'Dick' Georgeson | New Zealand | |
| 1986 | Maj. Richard L. Johnson | United States | |
| 1987 | Juhani Horma | Finland | |
| 1988 | Ingo Renner | Australia | |
| 1990 | Fred Weinholtz | Germany | |
| 1991 | Raymond W. Lynskey | New Zealand | |
| 1992 | Franciszek Kępka | Poland | |
| 1993 | Bernald S. Smith | United States | |
| 1994 | Terrence Raymond Delore | New Zealand | |
| 1995 | Tor Johannessen | Norway | |
| 1997 | Dr. Manfred Reinhardt | Germany | |
| 1998 | Oran Nicks | United States | |
| 1999 | Hana Zejdová | Czech Republic | |
| 2000 | Klaus Ohlmann | Germany | |
| 2001 | James M. Payne | United States | |
| 2002 | John Hamish Roake | New Zealand | |
| 2003 | Prof. Ing. Piero Morelli | Italy | |
| 2004 | Janusz Centka | Poland | |
| 2005 | Ian Strachan | United Kingdom | |
| 2006 | Alan Patching | Australia | |
| 2007 | Derek Piggott | United Kingdom | |
| 2008 | Roland Stuck | France | |
| 2009 | Ross Macintyre | New Zealand | |
| 2010 | Reiner Rose | Germany | |
| 2011 | Giorgio Galetto | Italy | |
| 2012 | Bob Henderson | New Zealand | |
| 2014 | not awarded | — | |
| 2015 | Loek Boermans | Netherlands | |
| 2016 | Rainer Wienzek | Germany | |
| 2017 | Patrick Pauwels | Belgium | |
| 2018 | not awarded | — | |
| 2019 | Richard 'Dick' Bradley | South Africa | |
| 2020 | Gisela Weinreich | Germany | |
| 2021 | Eric Mozer | United States | |
| 2022 | not awarded | — | |
| 2023 | Jana Vepřeková | Czech Republic | - in the history of women's world sailing, she has the largest number of participations at the WC and EC, she won a medal at every 2nd - 10 medals from top world and European competitions (1x gold, 3x silver and 6x bronze) |
| 2024 | Tadeáš Wala | Slovakia | |
| 2025 | not awarded | — | |