Inside the head of Honorin Hamard

Honorin Hamard has been at the top of the competition game for more than a decade. Fresh back from his Superfinal win in Brazil he sat down with Ruth Jessop over a fondue dinner to dissect the scene, his own performance and the future of competition flying 

The new Paragliding World Cup Superfinal Champion Honorin Hamard is choking with laughter over the fondue. I’ve just asked him if he sticks Post-It notes to his flight instrument to remind him to do things, “like drink, don’t bomb out, beat Russell [Ogden] this time…” 

It’s a little dig at his expense, a reminder that despite his almost magical consistency, world records and competition titles, he is still fallible, still simply a 32-year-old paraglider pilot trying to stay up, racing against his friends.

“Some pilots do,” he agrees, “Russ has a Fun-ometer, 1-10 on his, but I don’t. Yes, I am considering sticking on a very large post-it saying, ‘Don’t follow Russell’!”

The joke is that during the recent...