'Confident in my flying': Lakeland teen prepares for international indoor skydiving competition

In April James Rogers, a Lakeland native, will be competing in the 2022 FAI Indoor Skydiving European Championships and World Cup in Belgium - a competition for which he is confident he will bring home a gold medal. 

“I am confident in my flying," Rogers, 17, said. "My routine I put together - I've spent a lot of time on so I'm confident in that for sure.”  

Since the age of 12, Rogers has been competing as an indoor skydiver. He began when his father, a former paratrooper in the United States Army, took the family to a wind tunnel in Orlando.

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In November , Rogers and his team won in several categories at the U.S. Nationals for Indoor Skydiving held in El Paso, Texas - including solo freestyle open, four-way dynamic open and best trick.

Come April it will be Rogers' first time attending a FAI World Cup. So far he has been to several other U.S. competitions and the Wind Games in Empuriabrava, Spain. 

Rogers is coached by professional skydiver Mike Wittenburg who helps with the group dynamic technique.  

“He sees things that others don’t when it comes to flying and gives us different drills to practice as far as the dynamic and speed goes,” Rogers said. “As far as freestyle that’s pretty much me training and putting together routines and synchronizing it to music.” 

Rogers trains at iFly Indoor Skydiving located in Tampa and spends between three to four hours every few days working on routines. 

“Basically, in the freestyle I’m doing anything I can to come up with anything new - new moves, new tricks and sequences,” Rogers said. “For the dynamic I’m just doing the different dynamic dives, the different routines and just trying to do them as fast as I can without making any mistakes.” 

After the World Cup, Rogers hopes to compete in and win at the World Championship in 2023.  

“My main focus right now is really trying to prepare for that to hopefully become world champion,” Rogers said. 

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Outside of skydiving Rogers stays active with other activities such as mixed martial arts, running and cycling. When he turns 18 Rogers said looks forward to making the switch to outdoor skydiving. 

“I’m definitely interested to try the different competitions," Rogers said. "There’s freestyle in the sky, there's different types of formation skydiving so I’m interested in trying that as well.”  

Breanna A. Rittman writes news features for The Ledger. Send your feature ideas to BRittman@gannett.com.