Drone Racing at The World Games: Chengdu 2025 Results and What Comes Next

The final lasted three races and the gold came down to a crash. At The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, Japan’s Yuki Hashimoto won drone racing gold on August 16. The 18-year-old was already the reigning FAI World Drone Racing Champion. He won after his two closest rivals collided and went out of the deciding heat.

It was drone racing’s second appearance at the multi-sport event for non-Olympic disciplines, after its debut in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2022. Whether there will be a third is now an open question.

Drone racing at The World Games 2025: the podium

The average age of the top four was under 18. That is the pitch the sport makes to multi-sport organizers: young, digital-first athletes who grew up on simulators.

How the Chengdu final unfolded

According to the FAI’s official report, 31 pilots from 19 countries spent three days in qualification and elimination rounds at Dong’an Lake Sports Park in eastern Chengdu. The four-pilot final ran as a first-to-two-wins shoot-out over up to five races.

• Race one: MinJae Kim won.
• Race two: Hashimoto won.
• Race three: Kim and Schäpper collided and crashed out. The race was stopped and restarted without them, and Hashimoto beat Kwan for his second win.

“I got a little bit lucky,” Hashimoto said afterward. The track helped the broadcast. Seen from above, it formed a panda’s face, with more than 40 turns and obstacles lit by thousands of LEDs for the night sessions.

What The World Games are

The World Games are a multi-sport event for disciplines that are not on the Olympic program. The International World Games Association (IWGA) runs them every four years. The 2022 edition in Birmingham had 34 sports, 3,457 athletes and 223 medals. Chengdu 2025 was the 12th edition.

For a young sport, a slot at The World Games brings international recognition and a broadcast audience that FPV racing rarely reaches on its own. IWGA president José Perurena López said drone racing “combines technology, speed, and skill in a way that captivates a new generation of athletes and fans.”

Why organizers wanted FPV racing in the first place

The FAI’s own history of the event says drone racing got into the 2022 Games because hosts wanted to reach younger, gaming-literate fans. The sport is also open to disabled athletes, including wheelchair users. Some spectators found the 2022 races hard to follow, so the format and presentation were reworked for Chengdu.

Qualification for Chengdu ran through the FAI ranking system, mainly the World Drone Racing Championships and the FAI Drone Racing World Cup, under F9U class rules. That pipeline still exists, which matters for what happens next.

Is drone racing in The World Games 2029?

On current information, no. The confirmed program for Karlsruhe 2029 (July 19–29) lists skydiving as the only air sport. The FAI has said other air sports could be proposed for future editions, but none has been named.

That leaves elite FPV pilots with three main stages:

• The FAI Drone Racing World Cup: a points series of individually sanctioned events, 14 on the 2026 calendar from the Philippines to Macao.
• The MultiGP Championship: the open-class title race in the US. Hashimoto finished fourth in October 2026, and Minjae Kim third.
• Team leagues: the Drone Champions League runs a simulator-based team championship with live finals.

The case for bringing drone racing back

The FAI has not given up. Its secretary general, Markus Haggeney, has argued that drone sports attract a younger, urban audience, exactly the fans multi-sport events say they want. Claus Cordes, president of the German Aero Club, has called The World Games “the most important competition for non-Olympic sports”, and his country is the 2029 host. If any air sport has a home crowd in Karlsruhe, it is the German one.

For now the FAI’s stated hopes for 2029 center on skydiving and a demonstration of electric-powered drop planes. Drone racing would need to be added to the program, and the window for that is narrowing.

Key dates

Who to watch after Chengdu

The Chengdu podium has stayed at the top of the sport. Hashimoto reached the final of the MultiGP Championship in Texas in October 2026. MinJae Kim won MultiGP’s 2026 World Cup and European Championship before finishing third in Texas. The next generation is younger still: Kazakhstan’s Alikhan Nsanbaev finished fifth at that MultiGP Championship at the age of 12.

Can you bet on World Games drone racing?

We found no US state-regulated sportsbook that listed markets on the Chengdu event, and none has listed FAI drone racing since. UK bookmakers have offered drone racing prices in the past, mostly tied to the Drone Racing League, but there is no regular market. Our guides to US drone betting sites and UK drone betting sites track what is actually available.

That may change if a league builds a regular, live, data-rich schedule. The World Games, held once every four years, was never going to be that event. For now, drone racing is a sport to watch rather than wager on. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.