On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 20:47:42 -0500, Dana M. Hague
d(dash)m(dash)hague(at)comcast(dot)net wrote in
:

The woman
involved is a top level competitor; my understanding is that the
pilots tried to get the competition directors to cancel that flying
day due to weather but they didn't listen.

It seems Ms. Wisnerska was only practicing, not competing, at the
time:

PARAGLIDER SURVIVES THUNDERSTORM ENCOUNTER
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#194492)
A German paraglider was frostbitten and bruised from being
pummeled by orange-sized hail, but lived to tell the tale of being
sucked up inside a thunderstorm and spit out at 30,000 feet. Ewa
Wisnerska was practicing for a meet in Australia when the storm
hit. Another competitor, He Zhongpin of China, was killed in the
storm. Wisnerska, 35, shot to 30,000 feet in about 10 minutes.
"You can't imagine the power. You feel like nothing, like a leaf
from a tree going up," she told a news conference. "I was shaking
all the time. The last thing I remember it was dark, I could hear
lightning all around me."
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#194492