posted Dec 28th, 2016 - The Golden Knights are probably looking back at one of the most successful years in the history of Formation Skydiving competition in the U.S. Army. The famous "Decade of Excellence" (1987 - 1997) has been the greatest memory so far, when the Golden Knights won six consecutive 8-way gold medals for the U.S. Formation Skydiving delegations at world meets.

The 2016 season with the FAI Mondial was still even more special for the U.S. Army delegation. It was the first time that the Golden Knights won two sets of gold medals (8-way, 4-way Women) at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving.

Both teams also won their gold medals with results on the highest event specific performance levels in the history of the sport. The 8-way team posted a new world record average (23.9) and the 4-way Women team finished with the highest 10-round average without a Super Sequence. Only the French Deep Blue team averaged higher at the world meet in Menzelinsk 2010, with the help of a Super Sequence.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-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	Golden Knights	US	31	25	26	22	20	22	19	26	24	24	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	20	25	18	16	19	17	23	19	20	199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23	19	25	17	14	16	16	21	20	19	190	19.0

USPA Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	D,21,C,22	2,4,A	16,5,E	F,7,M,13	11,P,18	3,1,L	H,Q,O,17	6,8,14	10,12,15	N,20,G,9	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	19	21	23	18	21	30	20	16	20	22	210	21.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	14	17	21	17	18	23	18	15	17	16	176	17.6
3	Amphibious Attack Tigers	10	11	12	14	11	14	11	12	13	14	122	12.2

The 4-way Women lineup does not continue after six years of hard work to get to the top position in this event, while the 8-way team is in the pursuit of a new "Decade of Excellence". The Sun Path Products NSL News reported during the live coverage of the FAI Mondial 2016 that Kurt Isenbarger and Jesse Stahler would not come back with the next 8-way lineup.

Kurt Isenbarger, the longest standing Golden Knights competitor next to Matt Davidson, was ready to retire from the competition team, while Jesse Stahler had new plans with the 4-way VFS team of the U.S. Army. Team captain Sean Sweeney had explained that 8-way videographer David Flynn would move in front of the camera, while the 8th slot was still open at this point in time.

Kurt Isenbarger and Jesse Stahler both still competed one more time with the 8-way team at the USPA Nationals 2016, as the new lineup was not complete by then. David Flynn had his active slot for the first time in Eloy, where Larry Miller had to sit out due to his scheduled knee surgery. David Flynn's starting point turned out to be a 21.0 average.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		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	Golden Knights	US	21	21	30	20	17	19	24	35	20	17	224	22.4
2	French Girls	FR	21	18	30	23	17	18	24	34	18	14	217	21.7
3	NFTO	UK	17	15	21	19	13	16	18	26	17	13	175	17.5

USPA Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	20,D,E,22	M,9,5	12,8,7	H,L,16,15	F,A,N,J,17	G,6,3	K,B,Q,P,C	18,10,11	13,21,4	14,1,19	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	22	37	21	24	39	21	47	16	18	20	265	26.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	23	35	19	19	28	19	45	14	17	19	238	23.8
3	Golden Knights	20	24	18	24	33	19	38	14	15	18	223	22.3

The Golden Knights had scheduled a try-out camp for the 8th slot in December, and one of the few candidates was Jennifer Davidson, freshly crowned world champion in 4-way Women. The selection of the 8th team member was probably not too difficult, and Jennifer Davidson will now train and compete together with her husband Matt.

Jennifer Davidson will be the first female 8-way competitor with the Golden Knights, and she could also become the second female 8-way world champion. Only Eliana Rodriguez has won an 8-way gold medal in the history of the sport so far.

Jennifer and Matt Davidson will also continue together in 4-way, where they competed for the Golden Knights at the USPA Nationals 2016 and won the bronze medals. 8-way team captain Sean Sweeney and Kurt Isenbarger were in the lineup, as well, and they will also come back with a casual training and meet schedule in 4-way.