posted Jul 24th, 2026 - The NSL News mentioned on July 21st that combined 4-way leaderboards for the 4-way Open and 4-way Women events at FAI/ISC World Championships became a journalistic option beginning in 2001. That was the year when the separate 4-way Women competition was introduced in Spain. From then on, the World Championship and World Cup format included 4-way Open, 4-way Women and 8-way Open.

The NSL News, in its current format, was launched in 2004, although the website includes information and data from events dating back several years. The FAI Outdoor World Championship 2004, however, became the first event where the scores from both the 4-way Open and 4-way Women competitions were also featured on an automatically generated combined leaderboard.

Leaderboards from FAI World Championships and World Cups have been available at SKYLEAGUE.COM dating back to 1985, the year when the current format of Formation Skydiving competition was introduced. There was no need for combined leaderboards between 1985 and 1999, as the FAI World Championships featured only 4-way and 8-way competition during that period. The separate 4-way Women event was introduced in Spain 2001, four years before the current NSL website began generating combined leaderboards automatically. Several more years passed before the NSL News began covering the combined standings on a regular basis. As a result, the early history of the combined leaderboards, beginning with the inaugural competition in 2001, has remained largely unexplored.

FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		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	Synchronicity	US	13	13	13	12	14	14	15	16	13	24	147	14.7
2	Norgie Girls	NO	13	15	15	13	13	12	13	15	13	22	144	14.4
3	4 Pleasure	SE	13	15	14	13	14	14	14	15	12	19	143	14.3
4	V-Max	UK	9	15	14	12	14	14	13	16	13	21	141	14.1
5	Russia	RU	11	11	12	12	9	12	12	13	11	12	115	11.5
6	South Africa	ZA	12	12	11	9	11	8	11	13	10	16	113	11.3
7	Italy	IT	10	10	11	9	5	11	11	9	11	-	87	9.7
8	Parat	DE	8	10	8	7	9	9	9	9	6	-	75	8.3
9	Spain	ES	4	7	6	4	8	6	4	9	5	-	53	5.9
10	Austria	AT	6	4	5	4	3	6	5	7	6	-	46	5.1

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V-Max (UK) - 4-Pleasure (SE) - TNT/Norgie Girls (NO) at the Shamrock Showdown 2001

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The combined 4-way leaderboard of Spain 2001 is more complex than today's version. The differences extend beyond the dive pool, which was also significantly different at the time and included 24 blocks. In addition, not all teams completed all ten competition rounds, as cuts were made before the "semifinals" (Round 9) and the "finals" (Round 10). Only ten national teams advanced to complete nine rounds, and only six of them also performed the Round 10 sequence.

The format changed in 2003, when only eight teams advanced to the "semifinals" and four to the "finals". In 2004, the rules were revised again so that ten of all teams advanced to the "semifinals", with the Top 6 of those semifinalists after Round 9 moving on to the "finals" in Round 10. The cut format was then finally standardized at ten semifinalists and six finalists from 2006 through 2014 before all cuts were eliminated at Skydive Chicago 2016, allowing every team to complete all ten rounds.

The cuts in 2001 made the first combined 4-way leaderboard particularly challenging, as teams completed different numbers of competition rounds. All teams had only the first eight rounds in common, while Rounds 9 and 10 could—and did—change both the rankings and the final meet averages. As a result, the meet averages on the combined leaderboard are not listed in numerical order, because the rankings reflect each team's competitive position after the eight rounds that all teams completed. Both 4-way events produced exciting and closely contested competition in 2001, even though the 4-way Women teams did not rank as highly on the combined leaderboard as they have in more recent years.

FAI World Championship 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/Women Combined		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
4	Sebastian XL	UK	17	22	20	17	18	19	19	21	18	28	199	19.9
5	Endeavour	CH	14	17	15	14	14	16	15	17	13	26	161	16.1
6	Sinapsi PD	IT	12	13	17	15	15	15	14	19	15	24	159	15.9
7	Germany	DE	13	13	15	15	16	15	14	18	13	-	132	14.7
8	Russia	RU	13	17	14	13	14	14	16	15	13	-	129	14.3
8	Belgium	BE	14	14	14	13	14	14	15	17	14	-	129	14.3
10	Japan	JP	14	14	15	14	16	13	11	17	12	-	126	14.0
11	Spain	ES	14	11	14	14	15	12	15	18	-	-	113	14.1
12	Synchronicity	US	13	13	13	12	14	14	15	16	13	24	147	14.7
13	Norgie Girls	NO	13	15	15	13	13	12	13	15	13	22	144	14.4
14	4 Pleasure	SE	13	15	14	13	14	14	14	15	12	19	143	14.3
15	Netherlands	NL	13	16	14	13	14	12	13	14	-	-	109	13.6
16	V-Max	UK	9	15	14	12	14	14	13	16	13	21	141	14.1
17	Australia	AU	13	11	15	14	10	14	15	11	-	-	103	12.9
18	Voodoo	ZA	11	14	13	12	13	13	11	15	-	-	102	12.8
19	Canada	CA	10	11	11	12	11	12	13	13	-	-	93	11.6
20	Russia	RU	11	11	12	12	9	12	12	13	11	12	115	11.5
21	South Africa	ZA	12	12	11	9	11	8	11	13	10	16	113	11.3
22	Croatia	HR	9	11	11	11	12	10	9	13	-	-	86	10.8
23	Brazil	BR	10	11	9	9	10	10	11	12	-	-	82	10.3
24	Ireland	IE	10	11	10	9	8	9	11	10	-	-	78	9.8
25	Italy	IT	10	10	11	9	5	11	11	9	11	-	87	9.7
25	Denmark	DK	8	10	11	8	9	9	10	11	-	-	76	9.5
27	Austria	AT	5	9	7	10	11	10	8	12	-	-	72	9.0
28	Parat	DE	8	10	8	7	9	9	9	9	6	-	75	8.3
29	Portugal	PT	7	3	8	10	9	9	9	11	-	-	66	8.3
30	Czech Republic	CZ	7	9	4	8	11	5	10	11	-	-	65	8.1
31	Lithuania	LT	8	7	6	8	8	9	7	8	-	-	61	7.6
32	Argentina	AR	5	8	6	9	7	7	5	8	-	-	55	6.9
33	Israel	IL	6	8	4	9	5	5	8	9	-	-	54	6.8
34	Spain	ES	4	7	6	4	8	6	4	9	5	-	53	5.9
35	Slovakia	SK	5	8	7	8	7	7	5	0	-	-	47	5.9
36	Finland	FI	4	8	7	9	5	7	5	2	-	-	47	5.9
37	Indonesia	ID	6	6	6	5	5	6	5	6	-	-	45	5.6
38	Turkey	TR	5	5	4	7	7	5	5	6	-	-	44	5.5
39	Slovenia	SI	8	10	9	9	3	0	0	4	-	-	43	5.4
40	Austria	AT	6	4	5	4	3	6	5	7	6	-	46	5.1
41	Poland	PL	5	6	5	3	2	7	1	9	-	-	38	4.8
42	Colombia	CO	3	3	5	1	3	4	6	5	-	-	30	3.8
43	Korea	KR	2	4	2	6	3	0	0	6	-	-	23	2.9
44	Zimbabwe	ZW	2	3	1	4	1	3	3	4	-	-	21	2.6