posted Jan 5th, 2015 - The recent updates from France on 24 December 2014 and 3 January 2015 brought back memories of two outstanding French achievements in the history of Formation Skydiving competition.

They both happened at the same time and the same place, Menzelinsk 2010. The world meet in Russia was the first event where a competitor won gold medals in 4-way and 8-way, accomplished by Mathieu Bernier. He was a member of the French delegation that won all four Formation Skydiving gold medals (4-way Open 4-way Women, 4-way VFS, 8-way Open) for the first time in history.

That's not new for the Sun Path Products NSL News audience, however, the role of the French national coach behind the scenes, Jerome David, has not received much attention, even though his NSL Profile provides a lot of information.

Malevsky Cup 2005		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	10,C,11	2,M,20	K,A,3,F	14,7,O	22,19,P	D,15,G,8	L,18,J,13	1,H,N,16	5,12,6	E,9,Q,17	Total	Avg
1	LaPalisse Maubeuge (FR)	19	18	26	18	18	21	18	27	16	18	199	19.9
2	Arizona Airspeed (US)	19	16	27	18	18	20	19	27	17	17	198	19.8
3	Evolution Pro (RU)	16	14	21	15	18	18	17	21	11	15	166	16.6
4	eX3MO (IT)	13	12	18	13	14	14	14	16	11	12	137	13.7
5	Remscheid (DE)	11	8	16	12	13	11	13	15	11	9	119	11.9

Jerome David had a vision and a plan, which included both achievements that eventually materialized in 2010. He was still dreaming of the double-gold option after Arizona Airspeed (1999, 2001) and France (2003) had both failed, as he said in an interview with the Sun Path Products NSL News during the Malevsky Cup 2005:

"For me, that is a wonderful dream, and dreaming is a most important thing to achieve things. So I think they (Airspeed) are right in trying to do it. I have no regrets that we tried it ourselves in 2003. I am sure that one day we will try it again, maybe in 2008. I am sure that some day somebody will succeed. You need four or six years to achieve such a task."

He observed Arizona Airspeed at the Malevsky Cup 2005 and knew about the challenges of the double duties: "Yesterday Airspeed was 14 hours on the drop zone, we spent only eight hours there. My team went in the swimming pool, some were sleeping, no stress activities."

Malevsky Cup 2005		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	10,C,11	2,M,20	K,A,3,F	14,7,O	22,19,P	D,15,G,8	L,18,J,13	1,H,N,16	5,12,6	E,9,Q,17	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire (US)	19	20	26	22	18	20	20	22	17	32	216	21.6
2	Airspeed Odyssey (US)	19	19	22	23	17	20	19	19	18	28	204	20.4
3	Airspeed Velocity (US)	19	20	26	21	17	18	20	16	17	28	202	20.2
3	Sinapsi PD (IT)	17	19	24	21	17	19	20	19	17	29	202	20.2
5	Fastrax (US)	17	19	28	21	18	16	19	21	17	23	199	19.9
6	Black Cat (RU)	18	19	23	20	18	16	19	19	18	25	195	19.5
7	Spa Hayabusa (BE)	16	18	27	19	18	18	19	19	16	24	194	19.4

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He followed up with his plan how to lay the foundation for what would happen later in 2010:

"I have many technical coaches now who work for me on the drop zones. I am more behind the computer and the telephone working on the selection of the teams and the management people. I organize the logistics and the financial things, as well, and I have to synchronize the six coaches.

"Martial Ferre works in Gap, Marin Ferre in Vannes, Davide Moy travels to different locations, Erwan Pouliquen is technically in charge for the 8-way team, Julien Degen organizes in Maubeuge, and Sophie Deremaux works in Saumur. I have two team leaders, which are Manu Sarrazin for 8-way and Sophie Deremaux also for the female 4-way team. Inside the teams, I have people who are in charge of specific things and jobs."

World Meet 2008		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey (US)	30	32	24	16	29	21	28	15	195	24.4
2	Maubeuge (FR)	28	30	23	17	27	23	28	18	194	24.3
3	HayaBusa Defence (BE)	27	33	23	17	27	22	25	17	191	23.9
4	Sky Panthers (RU)	28	30	22	16	28	20	27	17	188	23.5
5	Arcteryx (NO)	27	29	21	17	25	21	26	14	180	22.5
6	Evolution (CA)	25	27	22	17	24	18	26	16	175	21.9

Videos: World Meet 2008 - Arizona Airspeed - France

Two years later, Jerome David had finalized his 4-year plan until the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk. He stepped back from any technical coaching work with the teams and focused only on the management after winning FAI's Patrick de Gayardon Trophy for the first time for France in 2006 (gold medals in 8-way, silver medals in 4-way Open and 4-way Women). He had even higher goals in his mind, which would require his full attention.

He told the Sun Path Products NSL News in January 2007 that he was planning to win all three sets of gold medals in 2010. He was expecting to win gold again in 2008 but did not see the new 4-way lineups ready for gold early enough for a French sweep in 2008.

France did not miss it by much though. The 8-way team won the gold medals in Maubeuge, and his new 4-way lineup (Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier, Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollett) ended up only one single point behind Arizona Airspeed. Deep Blue finished 3rd in 4-way Women.

Jerome David took those 2008 medals on the way to his final push in the last two years of his career as the French national coach. He was planning in 2007 to separate 4-way and 8-way again after the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge, except for Mathieu Bernier who would continue in both events.

It all worked out perfectly with three gold medals in 4-way Open, 4-way Women and 8-way Open, and the French VFS team added the forth set of gold medals to the French collection in 2010.

New national coach Jeremie Rollett was a part of the whole French experience with Jerome David between 2004 and 2010, and he is now in a similar situation in 4-way Open and in 8-way. He has not spoken of his own vision yet. However, he knows that it will be a long way to go, at least for his new 4-way team...