posted Nov 27th, 2019 - The new Arizona Airspeed 4-way team has recently received a lot of attention, together with the changes in the Airspeed XP8 lineup. Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine train and compete with both teams until the FAI World Championship of Formation 2020 and have a very busy year ahead of them.

Airspeed XP8 has scheduled enough time to get up to 1000 training jumps completed before the main event next year. Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine will add another 500 training jumps in 4-way with the new lineup to the total.

They took the time on Wednesday for a new NSL Live Talk conversation and recalled the events that lead up to the new Airspeed 4-way lineup. The logic behind the recent moves in 4-way and 8-way has been discussed and confirmed by several members of both teams. Main goal was to strengthen both U.S. national teams before traveling to Tanay in Russia next year.

After Steve Lefkowitz' and Andrew Happick's withdrawal from 8-way training and competition, SDC Rhythm XP will have enough time to focus only on 4-way, where the competition for the three sets of FAI medals will be tough enough. This is not different in 8-way, where XP8 need the strongest available lineup and enough training to have a chance and finish in the top spot.

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NSL Live Talk with Mikhail Markine (left) and Niklas Hemlin (right) on 27 November 2019

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Airspeed's 4-way situation is different, as the team has to sit out the next world meet, even though Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine will compete in 8-way, where a battle for FAI gold medals is also new for both of them.

Airspeed XP8 have highly experienced 8-way competitors and 8-way world champions in the lineup with Kirk Verner, Matt Davidson and Brian Krause. However, the majority in the lineup have not competed for FAI 8-way medals in their Formation Skydiving competition career (Michelle Karamon, Jeana Billings, John D'Annunzio, Niklas Hemlin, Mikhail Markine). Russia's and Qatar's 8-way teams, who won silver and bronze in Australia 2018, both have more world meet experiences.

At the same time, Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine have to re-build their 4-way team. They said that the long-term commitment was probably the biggest factor in the selection of two new team members.

The chart of the Airspeed lineups since the team project was launched in 1994 is showing that the time periods of the different lineups together has become significantly shorter compared to the most successful original lineup (Kirk Verner, Mark Kirkby, Dan BC, Jack Jefferies). Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine are aware of this history, which is the reason why the long-term commitment is so important.

Development of Arizona Airspeed's 4-way lineups between 1994 and 2020

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The original Airspeed lineup completed six years together, and Airspeed Odyssey (Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Andy Delk) had their 6-year period, as well, two years with Brian Johnson and four more years with original member Mark Kirkby in the tail slot.

Then the time periods changed, and two years was the longest time for the same Airspeed lineup between 2011 and 2019. It was almost a miracle how the two years of the 2011/2012 lineup produced 4-way gold medals for Niklas Hemlin, Thomas Hughes, Josh Hall and Mark Kirkby, with Bill Schmitz on camera.

Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine are ready to keep the new lineup together as long as possible. They know that this will be necessary to win back the U.S. top spot and get anywhere close to NMP PCH HayaBusa.

Arizona Airspeed's new 4-way team is also still working on the slot assignments. It is a fact that Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine will not be in the same piece, even though Joey Marshall (point) and Christopher Kuhlmann (outside center) have been together in the front piece since the beginnings of Ranch 2nd Generation.

Airspeed has experiences with switching slots and scrambling the lineups until they find the best combination. The starting point for the first 4-way training camp next week will have Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine in their current slots, as well as Joey Marshall. Chris Kuhlmann switches from outside center to inside center. That is for now...