Spectacular wingsuit jump over Oberhof: Red Bull Skydive Team lands precisely in front of the audience
On January 17, 2026, visitors to the AXA Winter Weeks – Thuringia 2026 can look forward to an extraordinary extreme sports highlight: the two international wingsuit pioneers Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel from the Red Bull Skydive Team will land directly in the LOTTO Thüringen ARENA am Rennsteig after a spectacular formation flight.
When the audience at the LOTTO Thüringen ARENA am Rennsteig looks up on January 17, 2026, a special part of the AXA Winterwochen – Thüringen 2026 program will begin. With their wingsuit jump, Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel will present modern aerial acrobatics at the highest level – precise and spectacular.
The jump will take place from Arnstadt-Alkersleben airfield. At around 3:50 p.m., the athletes will jump from a Cessna 182 (pilot: Simon Meusburger) from a height of around 1,500 meters. The subsequent flight is expected to last two to four minutes: First, the athletes will glide through the sky at high speed in their wingsuits before ending the flight with a precise parachute landing. The landing is planned in the area of the biathlon penalty loop in the ARENA.
Two exceptional athletes on the international scene
Equipped with smoke, Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel leave impressive trails in the sky, creating a visual spectacle from the air. Temperatures at jump altitude can reach as low as –25 °C, requiring the utmost physical and mental precision.
Marco Fürst (34) from Vorarlberg and Marco Waltenspiel (40) from Salzburg have been among the world's top skydivers for years. Both have completed over 11,000 jumps and are multiple Austrian national champions and international World Cup winners in various disciplines. They regularly appear at major events such as AirPower Zeltweg, Formula 1 races, MotoGP, and the Ski World Cup in Kitzbühel.
World records and extraordinary projects
The two athletes gained international recognition through projects such as “Wings Through Tower Bridge” (London, 2024), in which they became the first team in the world to fly through Tower Bridge in wingsuits – after months of preparation and around 200 training jumps. Other highlights include the globally broadcast “Projekt Streif” jump at the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel and “Bang On Time – Sky meets Ski,” a synchronized project that combined wingsuit flying with freeski acrobatics.