posted Jul 12th, 2022 - The pursuit of winning gold medals at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving in 4-way and 8-way both has been an ongoing topic for the NSL News since French national coach Mathieu Bernier mastered this special challenge in Menzelinsk 2010. He is still the only FS competitor in the history of the sport since 1985 with gold medals in both disciplines at the same event.

There were earlier attempts with the same goal, which all failed, sometimes just by a hair, other times without a chance. The attempts began very early, the first one at the second world meet after the introduction of the new format in 1985. The Golden Knights won 8-way gold, and team captain Andy Gerber took a 4-way lineup of the 8-way team to the 2nd place, six points behind the TAG Team 4-way experts from France.

Arizona Airspeed's original lineup of 1995 had only the main goal to take the 4-way top spot from France, which they did after the merger of the best east coast and west coast 4-way competitors. The Golden Knights took care only of the 8-way event.

Craig Girard eventually changed Arizona Airspeed when he moved to Eloy and started to build a strong 8-way team, with the most solid foundation of the original 4-way lineup. Airspeed's double-gold attempt in 1999, with the complete 4-way lineup in the 8-way team, came just as close as the Golden Knights in 1987 by winning in 8-way and finishing in 2nd place in 4-way, six points behind France.

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FAI World Meet 1987			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	TAG Team	FR	13	13	14	16	13	14	14	13	12	12	134	13.4
2	Golden Knights	US	13	10	11	16	12	14	14	12	13	13	128	12.8
3	Amadeus	AT	12	11	11	15	11	11	13	12	11	11	118	11.8
Rank	8-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	16	11	10	13	13	14	14	15	13	-	119	13.2
2	France	FR	14	10	10	12	13	13	16	15	14	-	117	13.0
3	Russia	RU	13	9	9	10	12	13	14	14	11	-	105	11.7

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It was even closer two years later in Spain 2001. Airspeed's new 4-way lineup (Airspeed Vertical: Craig Girard, John Eagle, Neal Houston, Mark Kirkby, Mark Steinbaugh on camera) won gold by two points over France and lost the 8-way battle by one point to Russia.

Then it was the French turn in Maubeuge 2008. Jeremie Rollett, Julien Degen, Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier were a part of the French 8-way team and won gold by 11 points over the U.S. pickup team on home turf. Airspeed Odyssey (Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Andy Delk and Mark Kirkby, with Steve Nowak on camera) held off the French 4-way team by one point to keep them from winning double-gold.

However, the same 4-way lineups of Airspeed and France were back two years later in Menzelinsk 2010, and only Mathieu Bernier competed again in 8-way, as well. He won 4-way gold with the same lineup by three points over Airspeed Odyssey, and he finished seven points ahead of the Golden Knights in 8-way.

Nobody has tried the same combination again ever since. The performance level in both events increased significantly with indoor training, and it seems as if it has become impossible to train enough in both events to win two gold medals at the same world championship.

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FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		8,19,24	A,L,22,H	E,10,D,11	21,6,4	B,18,C,14	G,5,20	2,1,16	M,K,12,9	15,23,P	O,17,Q,N	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	25	21	19	20	20	20	23	17	30	214	21.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	19	20	20	18	21	21	19	23	20	31	212	21.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	19	22	20	18	19	19	19	21	18	31	206	20.6
Rank	8-way Open		16,P,13	1,Q,O,5	B,K,6,8	15,9,19	21,12,20	L,7,G,H	J,F,M,C,22	3,18,17	E,11,A,14	4,D,2	Total	Avg
1	Russia	RU	19	15	18	17	17	21	22	22	19	23	193	19.3
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	17	17	17	19	23	21	21	19	19	192	19.2
3	France	FR	16	17	16	15	19	20	20	18	18	20	179	17.9

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However, Mathieu Bernier, still the only double-gold winner in Formation Skydiving history and now French national coach, tried a different approach with a different combination. He had two world champions in 4-way Women (Sophia Pecout, Christine Malnis) available who had continued with a new strong lineup after winning gold in Australia 2018.

The Aerodyne Weembi Girls were so far ahead of any competition in 4-way Women that they should be able to handle the combination of 4-way and 8-way for the new double-gold combination at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020. The NSL News covered the French strategy for the new double-gold attempt comprehensively, which concluded with two silver medals for France.

Currently the turn is back with the U.S. delegation, and the situation is similar as it was at the last outdoor world meet in 2021. XP8, with five reigning 8-way world champions (John D'Annunzio, Kirk Verner, Brian Krause, Jeana Billings, Michelle Karamon, and Elliot Byrd still on 8-way camera), plus Craig Girard, Matt Davidson and Andrew Happick, are at least as strong as last year. There is no 8-way team in sight that might be able to stop XP8 from winning the next gold medals.

XP8 members Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon are in a very similar situation as Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis were after Australia 2018, only the other way around. They seem to have the 8-way gold medals in their pockets, and they could add 4-way Women gold to accomplish what the French delegation missed in Tanay. It's the next pursuit of double-gold coming up in October.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2021			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		-		Total	Avg
1	Bubbles	RU	21	-1	33	-3	18	-1	33	-3	27		18		-		150	25.0
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	24		27	-4	18		34		24	-2	21		-		148	24.7
3	No Mercy	PL	15		20	-1	11	-1	20	-2	16		11		-		93	15.5
Rank	8-way Open		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		1,9,A		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	US	20		23		22	-1	23		31	-1	23		24		166	23.7
2	France National 8-way	FR	20		23		25		24		26	-1	25	-1	22	-1	165	23.6
3	Tanay 8	RU	18		21	-1	20		23		26		23		22		153	21.9

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