Freestyle and Speed Highline are still young sport disciplines with only a handful of competitions taking place every year. The HWC 2026 judges and organisers in agreement with the ISA Sport Commission tried to find fair qualification criteria for the third Highline World Championships. There were three ways to qualify:
1. ISA Ranking List
In each category, the top 6 athletes from the ISA ranking list’ 3 year ranking are automatically qualified. It takes into account all the results of the relevant competitions around the world. There were no specific qualifying events considered.
2. Top Swiss Athletes
The best Swiss Athletes are automatically qualified – due to the competition taking place in Switzerland and the audience onsite being mostly Swiss.
3. Wild Cards
4 wild cards spots per category have been opened for the competition. Therefore we gave out a total of 16 wildcards this year.