posted May 18th, 2025 - The performance level of the 4-way Women team from China is well known by now., after the 1st place at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024 and the 30.5 average that would have taken the bronze medal position in 4-way Open at the same event. Then they confirmed their world-class performance at outdoor competition, as well, with the 2nd place at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships.

They came to the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 as the top favorite in 4-way Women and lived up to the expectations, despite the record number of 25 point deductions that kept them from taking the 2nd place behind Aethers Medjay on the combined AAA Class leaderboard (4-way Open/4-way Women).

As expected as the 4-way Women performance of China has been, the more unknown was the Chinese 8-way team. It was the first time in the history of formation skydiving competition that an 8-way team from China competed at a world championship. The NSL News then pointed out on May 14th how unusual it has been in the sport that an 8-way team consists only of female team members. It was not a surprise that there was an 8-way team from China on the leaderboard, as China had registered a team for the 8-way competition. It was still not known that it was an all-female lineup who would eventually finish in 4th place behind GKXP8 (US), D'Arc8 (FR) and Falcons (QA).

FAI Indoor World Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		D,4,17		C,22,10		5,P,Q,18		1,M,J,O		16,6,19		H,8,21		12,13,A		L,G,K,9		15,F,7		E,2,N,B		Total	Avg
1	GKXP8	US	39	-1	30		31		40	-1	29	-2	24		28		32	-2	37		35	-2	325	32.5
2	D'Arc8	FR	38		26		26	-1	34	-1	24	-1	22		22	-2	27		29	-3	27		275	27.5
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	37		22	-4	26	-2	30	-5	25	-2	20	-2	22	-3	26	-2	24	-3	25	-3	257	25.7
4	China	CN	24		18	-1	19	-1	23	-2	22		17		18		19	-5	22		18	-3	200	20.0
5	Netunos	BR	20	-3	18		20	-1	23		19		13	-1	17		20	-3	13		15	-3	178	17.8
6	Team Canada	CA	18	-1	14		13	-3	17		15	-2	14		10	-3	17	-1	14		11	-2	143	14.3

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China in 8-way and 4-way at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025

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FAI Indoor World Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		D,4,17		C,22,10		5,P,Q,18		1,M,J,O		16,6,19		H,8,21		12,13,A		L,G,K,9		15,F,7		E,2,N,B		Total	Avg
1	China	CN	28	-1	21	-2	29	-2	38	-3	24	-3	26	-1	24	-2	39	-6	27	-4	36	-1	292	29.2
2	Nephtys	FR	28		23		29	-2	36		25		24		24	-2	39		31	-2	30	-2	289	28.9
3	XPG4	US	24		19	-1	24	-3	35	-1	23		22		21	-1	38		24	-2	31	-1	261	26.1
4	Airdrops	CH	16	-3	15	-2	18	-2	30		20		18		18		27	-1	20	-1	25	-1	207	20.7
5	Singapore	SG	17		10	-2	15	-2	21	-1	12	-2	16	-1	10	-5	14	-5	19		16	-3	150	15.0

It was another surprise that the Chinese 4-way Women lineup was also on double-duties. There was only one other 4-way team, the Netunos from Brazil, who were competing in 8-way at the same time. However, the Netunos 4-way lineup were not in the race for FAI medals in 4-way Open, while China's 4-way Women team had to battle with the French Nephtys for the gold medals in 4-way Women.

The switching from indoor 4-way to indoor 8-way and vice versa could not be more extreme than in the situation of China's 4-way Women lineup. The 25 point deductions in 4-way Women tell the story of the Chinese performance style, which has only one goal: maximum speed. It worked by three points over Nephtys, while the same 4-way lineup changed the approach to 8-way performance dramatically.

The Chinese 8-way performance would have been even one of the cleanest on the 8-way leaderboard without a major mistake in Round 8 (L,G,K,9). The 8-way team build an incorrect first formation of Block 9 (Taj) on each of the five pages and lost five points. They still finished with a 20.0 average in their first competition. The NSL News followed China's 8-way team when there was time to record the historic appearance on the 8-way leaderboard at Paraclete XP.

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NSL TV Unfiltered: China 8-way at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025

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