Werner Luidolt (AT) and Ole Dalen (NO) were announced as Nova’s Team Pilots of the year for 2023.
They received their awards at the brand’s annual Team Pilots Meeting in October 2023. Newcomer trophies went to Philipp Hänggi (CH) and Ali Heydari (IR). Roland Mäder (CH) was the first to receive the newly created Lifetime Achievement award.
Werner Luidolt, who also works as a graphic designer for Nova, used to be one of the World’s top sailplane pilots before turning to paragliding. He became Austrian champion in the Fun & Safety category this year with his Mentor 7 Light and completed one of the longest FAI triangles ever (286.5km) on an EN-B wing.
Norwegian Ole Dalen is a professional TV reporter and is well known as a video maker for his own channels, for Nova at the Red Bull X-Alps and most recently at the Coupe Icare.
Philipp Hänggi from Switzerland may be a newcomer as a Nova team pilot, but he achieved high rankings in hike-and-fly races in the 2023 season with his Xenon, as well as his first 300km+ flight in 11hr,54m.
The second newcomer of the year was Ali Heydari from Iran . He lives in Golestan province, not far from the Caspian Sea. He mostly flies in the Ramian area and is a great brand ambassador for Nova.
Nova describe Roli Mäder as a “living legend”. He would regularly place in the top 10 in the worldwide standard class of XContest and was one of the highest-ranked XC pilots in Switzerland for decades. He remains committed to EN-B wings and Nova awarded him their newly-created ‘Pilots Team Lifetime Achievement Award’.
These awards, now in their 16th year, are presented in recognition of “outstanding sporting achievement” and “commitment to the team, brand and paragliding in general”.
The winners each received a personalised beer mug and a €400 voucher from Nova.
