posted Dec 20th, 2016 - China has been a part of the Formation Skydiving competition world since 1987. The country's national 4-way team did not compete at the first world meet after the new rules and regulations and the new dive pool were introduced in 1985 and showed up first time in Brazil 1987.

The 7th place in a 25-team field was a great start into the best period for Chinese 4-way competition.

Two years later in Empuriabrava, Spain, China was in 3rd place of 28 teams after Round 10, tied with the U.S. national 4-way team. China then lost the jump-off and missed the bronze medals.

4-way teams from China attended the next two world meets (1991, 1993) before they drew back from word meet competition for 15 years.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	24	25	35	26	19	22	27	39	23	22	262	26.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	23	31	26	18	22	27	40	23	23	254	25.4
3	France	FR	21	20	30	21	18	21	27	39	21	20	238	23.8
4	Black Cat	RU	22	20	30	24	17	21	24	33	21	19	231	23.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	21	20	30	24	17	20	23	36	17	18	226	22.6
6	Evolution	CA	20	18	29	24	16	18	23	32	18	16	214	21.4
7	Satori XL	UK	18	19	27	24	16	18	22	30	18	18	210	21.0
8	Airbus	DE	16	18	29	19	15	18	22	29	14	19	199	19.9
9	Savolo	ZA	15	15	25	19	14	15	16	28	17	15	179	17.9
10	Final Fire	AT	16	15	25	17	12	16	18	29	17	13	178	17.8
11	Ex3mo	IT	18	15	21	18	13	14	19	25	17	14	174	17.4
12	Rotor Out	AU	16	16	24	14	13	16	18	22	14	13	166	16.6
13	Pangaea	DK	15	16	24	19	11	13	16	25	12	13	164	16.4
14	China	CN	14	15	21	15	12	11	16	24	12	12	152	15.2
15	M4trix	NL	13	13	16	11	11	12	14	20	12	12	134	13.4
16	H4O	IE	13	13	17	8	9	12	9	15	10	10	116	11.6
17	MeXtreme	MX	8	8	13	8	9	9	9	12	8	7	91	9.1

The comeback happened in Maubeuge 2008 and continued in Menzelinsk 2010 and Dubai 2012. The Sun Path Products NSL News posted a comprehensive update of 4-way competition in China on July 20th, 2010, when the national 4-way visited Skydive DeLand for a training camp.

China did not have a team at the world meet in Prostejov 2014, however, it was fortunately not the beginning of a new hibernation. There was a new national team at the FAI Mondial 2016, and the scoring level was almost exactly the same as in 2010 and 2012.

China has not been close to any medal rankings as the national 4-way team was in 1989, however, this year's 14th place is the best result since the comeback in 2008.

FAI Mondial 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		5,12,E	6,D,B,K	O,8,7	N,13,18	10,21,M	19,H,11	C,G,1,A	20,9,15	16,F,P,Q	2,J,4	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	34	27	22	23	23	32	25	40	26	279	27.9
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	25	34	27	21	23	24	32	27	40	25	278	27.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	26	30	27	21	23	25	29	23	37	24	265	26.5
4	Evolution	CA	22	31	24	17	19	21	28	22	30	22	236	23.6
5	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	29	22	21	21	18	28	20	35	20	233	23.3
6	Satori	UK	18	26	21	17	15	18	23	17	27	18	200	20.0
7	Ex3mo 4	IT	17	24	20	14	17	19	22	18	28	-	179	19.9
8	Paratec-Saar	DE	18	26	21	13	14	16	21	18	30	-	177	19.7
9	Rotor Out	AU	14	25	18	15	17	18	22	17	28	-	174	19.3
10	Bardagi	SE	17	26	20	14	16	15	23	17	24	-	172	19.1
11	Voodoo	ZA	16	24	19	13	15	16	23	17	-	-	143	17.9
12	Ravens	AT	18	23	17	15	17	13	22	16	-	-	141	17.6
13	Qatar Tigers	QA	15	21	19	14	15	17	19	16	-	-	136	17.0
14	VIVA 4	CH	14	21	19	11	17	14	20	14	-	-	130	16.3
15	CTR Optimum	BR	17	19	16	13	15	14	19	16	-	-	129	16.1
16	Dubai Asaar Red	AE	16	20	16	12	15	16	18	13	-	-	126	15.8
17	China	CN	7	21	15	14	14	15	21	16	-	-	123	15.4
18	Spain	ES	16	21	16	13	9	13	21	10	-	-	119	14.9
18	Lize	CZ	13	21	17	12	17	11	17	11	-	-	119	14.9
20	Bodyflight Voluntas	DK	15	21	17	10	13	11	18	12	-	-	117	14.6
21	Rebootizer Aerial	MC	15	14	16	11	16	13	17	13	-	-	115	14.4
22	Silver Knights	FI	13	18	16	10	13	14	18	12	-	-	114	14.3
23	Magic 4	LT	14	17	15	11	14	14	14	13	-	-	112	14.0
24	Whooops	NL	10	18	17	10	13	14	16	11	-	-	109	13.6
25	Singapore	SG	14	21	16	12	13	9	14	9	-	-	108	13.5
26	Fast Air	IE	11	17	12	8	12	11	14	12	-	-	97	12.1
27	Ukraine	UA	11	15	11	10	11	10	14	10	-	-	92	11.5
27	Atmosfera G4	PT	12	15	12	10	8	10	13	12	-	-	92	11.5
29	Estonia Lupus	EE	10	14	12	9	11	10	14	11	-	-	91	11.4
30	Sky Dragons	SI	12	11	13	9	11	10	12	10	-	-	88	11.0
31	Kazakhstan	KZ	10	11	11	9	6	9	8	8	-	-	72	9.0
32	Argentina	AR	8	13	7	7	8	7	10	9	-	-	69	8.6
33	Cyprus	CY	7	6	10	7	6	7	10	7	-	-	60	7.5
34	Colombia	CO	6	9	9	5	8	6	8	6	-	-	57	7.1
35	Oman	OM	5	8	10	8	6	5	6	6	-	-	54	6.8
36	Turkey	TR	0	6	8	4	6	6	5	7	-	-	42	5.3
37	Thailand	TH	3	7	7	4	5	0	6	2	-	-	34	4.3
38	Ecuador	EC	0	0	2	2	2	3	3	3	-	-	15	1.9

Coach Zhang Hongwei was a member of the Chinese national team that almost won a bronze medal in 1989 with a 13.1 average. He has been back with the national teams at the world meets since the comeback in 2008, as well.

This year's Mondial was the first time that FAI/IPC allowed all teams at a world meet to complete all ten rounds, and China benefitted from the rule change with the first 10-round meet since 2008, together with 11 other teams who were not eliminated earlier.

China has only competed in the 4-way Open category at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving, neither in 4-way Women nor in 8-way yet, even though the national 4-way team has had several female members over the years. There are several new vertical wind tunnels in China, too, and the country's Formation Skydiving competition may increase soon. The missed bronze medals of 1989 could become a new Chinese goal...