posted Jul 1st, 2026 - The NSL News update on June 26th featured French national coach Mathieu Bernier and his careful, successful approach to building the current French 4-way Open national team, the Aethers. Mathieu Bernier was himself part of the active lineup that won the FAI Outdoor World Championship title for France at Menzelinsk 2010, and there is a very good chance that he will add another set of FAI gold medals to the French collection as national coach 16 years later.

Although it is a young team, Damien Gouriou, flying the point slot for the Aethers, has become one of the longest-serving members of the French national 4-way Open team. Since making his first appearance in the lineup in 2013, he has represented France at six consecutive outdoor world championships and has witnessed the team's transition through several generations of competitors.

Mathieu Bernier recognized the talent of Damien Gouriou's four teammates—Tom Mattoni, Alban Rumolo, Mathieu Quizy, and Cameron Malie on camera—and selected them for the new French 4-way Open national team. As the previous NSL News update explained, he had to be patient, and he now appears well on his way to returning France to the top of the outdoor world in October. The FAI gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025, the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025, and the FAI Indoor World Cup 2026 provide strong evidence of his successful work and the team's promising position. However, Mathieu Bernier was not the only one to recognize Damien Gouriou's talent and motivation. It was actually the previous French national coach in formation skydiving, Jérémie Rollett, who first identified Gouriou's potential. After ending his own competitive career with the French teams, Rollett became the new national coach following his 4-way gold medal victory at Menzelinsk 2010 alongside his teammate Mathieu Bernier.

FAI Outdoor World Cup 2013			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		O,4,H,3	9,17,P	L,1,G,12	7,10,21	16,E,A,15	8,2,B	18,5,Q	F,14,K,N	M,C,D,13	20,J,19	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	27	33	23	22	29	22	26	28	33	24	267	26.7
2	Barkli	RU	26	31	21	20	22	21	24	25	26	21	237	23.7
3	Maubeuge Aerodyne	FR	22	28	20	20	23	16	21	22	28	21	221	22.1
4	eX3MO	IT	20	23	14	17	21	17	16	18	19	19	184	18.4
5	Sunny Wind	RU	14	23	14	17	20	12	14	22	21	17	174	17.4
6	Dubai Asaar Black	AE	16	15	13	15	20	16	17	18	17	13	160	16.0
7	Magic 4	LT	13	18	13	14	16	12	15	17	18	14	150	15.0
8	VAF Warriors	DK	16	16	12	12	15	13	12	16	17	12	141	14.1
9	a.team4way	RU	15	21	12	13	15	14	9	17	19	-	135	15.0
10	Raykipo	UK	14	16	13	13	12	13	14	15	17	-	127	14.1
11	Whooops	NL	12	17	12	14	11	14	11	14	19	-	124	13.8
12	Hexagon	SE	14	14	10	10	8	11	12	15	13	-	107	11.9
13	Eclipse	UK	13	15	12	12	11	13	13	16	-	-	105	13.1
14	Hyrrokkin	UK	14	13	11	12	15	13	11	14	-	-	103	12.9
15	Dubai Asaar Yellow	AE	14	15	12	10	10	12	11	11	-	-	95	11.9
16	Vesce	SI	6	7	5	7	5	3	7	8	8	-	56	6.2

---

France 4-way Open at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2013

---

Damien Gouriou had already caught the attention of Jerome David, the French national coach who led the French FS Sweep in Menzelinsk 2010. His coaching assistant, Marin Ferre, was player-coaching a French C-Team made up of emerging 4-way talent, and Damien Gouriou was part of that lineup alongside Laurence Herve and Olivier Fajon. In 2011, Jerome David's successor, Jeremie Rollett, promoted him to one of the two French B-Teams, Maubeuge NPC B1, where he trained and competed for the next two years. His time on the official French national team began in 2013, when Jeremie Rollett promoted him once again, this time to the highest level of French 4-way competition.

National coach Jeremie Rollett followed the traditional strategy that had served France so successfully for many years. He retained two highly experienced members of the previous national team—his 2010 world champion teammates Mathieu Bernier and Julien Degen, who had also won bronze medals at Dubai 2012. They passed on their knowledge and experience to the two new members of the French 4-way Open national team, Damien Gouriou and Pierre Emmanuel Balageas, with Olivier Henaff once again on camera.

Damien Gouriou's world championship career began with a 4th-place finish at Prostejov 2014. After narrowly missing the medals, Jeremie Rollett once again changed the lineup, and Damien Gouriou was the only returning team member. His former C-Team teammate from 2011, Laurence Herve—who had become the 4-way Women world champion in Dubai 2012 with the Deep Blue Defenders (Laurence Herve, Perrine Sanchez, Stéphanie Texier, Amélie Tirman, Rémy Grandcler on camera)—was moved into the 4-way Open lineup alongside Kevin Mansion and Charles Rommel.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2014			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 6		E,3,C,5	F,6,D,21	19,H,2	M,4,1	O,14,A,P	8,J,16	7,11,12	22,20,15	17,G,18	13,B,9	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	29	25	25	33	25	22	18	26	29	264	26.4
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	31	27	25	24	31	23	22	17	24	29	253	25.3
3	Evolution	CA	31	28	24	22	28	23	20	21	25	27	249	24.9
4	VoltR	FR	24	26	18	23	26	20	20	13	24	21	215	21.5
5	Barkli	RU	24	23	20	22	25	21	19	16	18	26	214	21.4
6	Dubai Asaar Black	AE	18	20	17	17	20	14	15	13	17	20	171	17.1

---

France 4-way Open at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2014

---

The new lineup, with Loic Campy now on camera, climbed up to the bronze medal position in Ottawa 2016, which came with Damien Gouriou's first world championship medal. The same lineup confirmed the 3rd place behind NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed in Australia 2018, now with David Ricard on camera. The new French national team in 4-way Women won gold at the same event.

In the meantime, Mathieu Bernier had replaced Jeremie Rollett as the national coach, who accepted the position as the head coach for Qatar's 8-way team and eventually moved to Qatar. Mathieu Bernier continued only with Damien Gouriou and team videographer David Ricard. He added Aurelien Lemaire, Kevin Mansion, and Alban Rumolo to the lineup. That's when Damien Gouriou and Alban Rumolo became team mates before the Covid 19 pandemic interrupted further development in France and in the whole 4-way world.

The same lineup missed a medal position once again after the pandemic break in Tanay 2021, and Mathieu Bernier decided to create the youngest lineup in history with new members Tom Mattoni and Mathieu Quizy. The new Aethers first missed a medal position in Eloy 2022, as well, before they turned the 4th place into silver at Crystal Coast 2024 and to only gold ever since. Cameron Malie is now on Aethers' camera slot, and Damien Gouriou is on his way to make the ultimate step, from a French C-Team slot in 2010 to a gold medal at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026.

FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,Q,19,F		G,13,K,A		12,7,8		16,E,6		1,J,9		10,15,21		5,18,L		M,20,11		C,17,2		22,O,P,3		Total	Avg
1	Aethers Lille	FR	36	-2	36		20	-1	25		29		20		24	-1	24		24	-1	25		263	26.3
2	Golden Knights	US	33		31	-2	20		24	-1	27	-1	16	-2	23		24		24		24		246	24.6
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	33		28	-3	19		24		30		18	-1	19	-2	22		21	-1	23		237	23.7
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	27	-1	22	-5	17		22		21	-3	14	-2	20	-1	18	-1	20		19		200	20.0
5	U.S. Team	US	24	-2	21	-2	17		20		24		15	-1	18		19		21	-1	19		198	19.8
6	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	28		22	-2	16	-1	20		23		15	-1	18		18	-1	17	-2	19		196	19.6
7	Echochamber	SE	26		25		16	-1	20		24		12	-1	16	-1	19		18	-1	19		195	19.5
8	Agera	NO	27	-1	23	-1	17		18	-2	23	-1	16		17		17	-1	17	-2	19		194	19.4
9	RhEvolution XP	US	27		22		15		18	-1	21		15		13	-2	17		17		17		182	18.2
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	21	-2	22		13	-2	17		21		14		16		17	-1	17		17		175	17.5
11	AYRO	BE	24		22		13		18		21		12	-1	13	-2	17		17		15		172	17.2
12	Papea	ES	21	-3	22		17		18		18	-3	14		13	-1	15	-2	16	-2	16	-1	170	17.0
13	Chop Chop!	AU	18		16		11		12		16		9		10	-1	14		12	-1	13		131	13.1
14	Les Hermines	FR	17	-2	16	-1	10	-1	12		15		8	-1	10		14		13		13		128	12.8
15	British Army Volt4ge	UK	16		12		10		12		14	-2	11		9	-1	11	-1	10	-1	11		116	11.6
16	Axis	UK	13	-1	10	-2	10		10		14		9		8		11		10	-1	9	-2	104	10.4

---

Aethers at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025

---