<Tr> <Th> World Games </Th> <Td> 1997--2017 </Td> </Tr> <P> Parachuting, or skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point to Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent with the use of a parachute or parachutes . It may involve more or less free - falling which is a period when the parachute has not yet been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal velocity . </P> <P> The first parachute jump in history was made by André - Jacques Garnerin, the inventor of the parachute, on 22 October 1797 . Garnerin tested his contraption by leaping from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet (980 m) above Paris . Garnerin's parachute bore little resemblance to today's parachutes, however, as it was not packed into any sort of container and did not feature a ripcord . The first intentional freefall jump with a ripcord - operated deployment was not made until over a century later by Leslie Irvin in 1919 . While Georgia Broadwick made an earlier freefall in 1914 when her static line became entangled with her jump aircraft's tail assembly, her freefall descent was not planned . Broadwick cut her static line and deployed her parachute manually, only as a means of freeing herself from the aircraft to which she had become entangled . </P> <P> The military developed parachuting technology as a way to save aircrews from emergencies aboard balloons and aircraft in flight, and later as a way of delivering soldiers to the battlefield . Early competitions date back to the 1930s, and it became an international sport in 1952 . </P>

Who was the first person to go skydiving