Comps and Events

Théo de Blic wins Acro World Tour 2025

‘The best ever’ – Bastienne Wentzel reports on the upside-down action from this year’s AWT

28 October, 2025, by Cross Country

Once again, Théo de Blic won the Acro World Tour 2025, securing his fifth solo AWT championship by winning all competitions and the Superfinal in Ölüdeniz, Turkey in September.

The acro season 2025 was held over five events combining the Acro World Tour (for the top ten pilots) and Acro World Qualifiers which are open to any acro pilot. A sixth planned event at Brienz (Switzerland) had to be cancelled due to rain.

Théo won all the events and most of the individual runs, proving his continued dominance in the acro scene. He said: “I trained a lot and I think I flew the best I ever did this year. The opposition was not that strong this year but I’m very happy with my flying. I think next year should be a lot more challenging with pilots like Flo (Florian Landreau), Ismael (Ortuzar) and Arthur (Penichout).”

His closest competitor Luke de Weert came second in the three events he was able to attend including the Superfinal. Overall he missed the podium and came fourth. He’s had various other obligations this year preventing him from going to Organyá to train and attending all competitions, he told us. Florian Landreau took second place overall and Ismail Ortuzar – as a rookie in the AWT winning the AWQ last year – took third place.

Théo now has eight acro world titles to his name: five solo AWTs, three synchro AWTs, one solo world championship and one synchro world championship. “I am at a stage of my career where winning doesn’t do much anymore. The happiness is very short-lived. My goals are beyond that. Personally I’ll be competing with the goal of winning a sixth title in solo and equalling Horacio’s (Llorens) record who has always been my idol.”

Hike-and-acro?

The acro scene is professionalising and growing rapidly. New venues are being explored, such as the ‘New School’ event in Grandvillard in Switzerland this year. AWT pilot Vincent Tornare organised this new event over ground, which was only accessible for AWT pilots because of the increased risk of flying over ground instead of water.

It was received very well by the pilots, Théo tells us. “It had a good altitude which is really nice because it means more opportunities to express ourselves. Grandvillard also had the particularity of having a ‘wild’ take-off. To be as high as possible we were hiking 300m on a steep slope with our acro gear. It made for funny moments with dead acro pilots on top just before their run.”

In terms of number of pilots 2025 was the most successful season so far. It saw 46 pilots including no fewer than 15 women competing in the Acro World Qualifiers. The top three ranked in the AWQ win an entry ticket to next year’s AWT. Including the AWT there were 56 pilots competing this year.

Acro World Tour 2025 Qualifiers: Arthur Penichout, Lucas Ruffieux and Nato Barbaste

Surprises

The AWQ season was also the most exciting ever, according to Théo. “In the past years it was pretty clear before the start of the season which AWQ pilots would get the tickets to the AWT. But this year we had seven or eight pilots who could really grab those spots. We had one huge surprise in the name of Arthur Penichout from France that very few people saw coming.”

Arthur ended up winning all AWQ events and will be competing in the AWT next year. Lucas Ruffieux took second place in the AWQ and Nato Barbaste came third, earning them tickets for the AWT too.

Behind Arthur, it was even more interesting, Théo says. “The Turkish team is very strong but they have never been able to get the funds to do the season. They finally got government support and could come, bringing three very strong pilots.”

Acro World Tour 2025 women's podium: Maud Perrin, Daniela Freudschmiedl, Fanny Meyer — Women’s Podium: Maud Perrin, Daniela Freudschmiedl and Fanny Meyer

He continues: “The Women’s AWT was also amazing. Although the competition was clearly dominated by Maud Perrin this year, Daniela, who won last year, finished second in each event behind Maud. Fanny Meyer from France took third.

“But the most amazing thing overall is we had 14 women, the most we’ve ever had, showing a real interest for the Women’s AWT. It was really cool also because the competition was quite fierce with six or seven women with a very similar level really battling for spots.”