posted Oct 15th, 2026 - The NSL News’ Coaches Corner at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026 begins with Gary Smith. Many experienced and professional coaches are competing at the event with their own teams, but that is not the case for Gary Smith. Originally from South Africa, he now lives on the Dutch island of Texel. Gary Smith was available at the end of Wednesday’s training. He was not particularly busy just yet, as his main responsibilities with NMP PCH HayaBusa and Germany’s Airbus 4-way team had not begun in earnest. However, he was already putting his coaching skills to work, helping the Dutch 4-way Women team Funky Falcon with its final training preparations at Skydive Arizona.

The Belgian top contender, NMP PCH HayaBusa, had not yet arrived on Wednesday and was expected to begin its final preparations on Thursday. Meanwhile, Golden Knights and Aethers Lille, the two major rivals standing between HayaBusa and Gary Smith and the FAI gold medals, were already well into their training programs on Wednesday and continued on Thursday morning.

Other 4-way teams were arriving, completing registration and other administrative formalities, and organizing their logistics for training and competition. The British team S.O.A.R. and Sweden’s Echochamber were preparing to start training, while Italy’s Amnesya Fly X was already in action on Wednesday. Norway’s Thyra and Australia’s Random Fixation also continued their training on Thursday morning.

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NSL Live Talk: Coaches Corner with Gary Smith

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Both French 4-way teams, Aethers Lille in 4-way Open and Nephtys Maubeuge in 4-way Women, continued their training jumps on Thursday morning. The situation surrounding Aethers Lille was naturally a major topic during the NSL Live Talk and in Gary Smith’s comments.

The change in the Aethers lineup came as a surprise to most observers, although the signs were already there at the French Outdoor Nationals in August, where Clementine Le Bohec made her return to outdoor 4-way competition by replacing Mathieu Quizy in the tail slot. At the time, however, the reason for the lineup change was not widely known, especially since Aethers had experimented with different slot assignments before.

The NSL News had reported on 30 November 2025 that Aethers had shuffled its slots at the Weembinamic 2025, where the team still claimed victory by nine points over the Dynos, posting a 30.1 average. Against that background, it did not seem particularly surprising that Aethers competed with Clementine Le Bohec at the French Outdoor Nationals, an event with little direct relevance to the team’s international ambitions or the national coach’s plans. However, the team’s 24.3 meet average in August, achieved with Le Bohec replacing Quizy, was already an impressive result. Even so, it attracted little more attention than the slot changes at Weembinamic in November 2025.

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Weembinamic 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way AAA Class		11,N,B,15		C,12,19		1,10,8		O,G,13,16		H,7,5		17,14,3		M,2,J,A		O,21,22		K,4,L,D		P,F,6,E		Total	Avg
1	Aethers Remix	FR	31		27		22		32		34		23	-1	34		23	-1	33		42	-2	301	30.1
2	Dynos	INT	26	-2	27		20	-1	27	-2	34	-1	25	-1	33	-2	24	-2	33		43		292	29.2
3	Unruly	INT	30		27		21		28	-1	31	-1	23		34		20	-2	34		42	-1	290	29.0
4	Yasuke	INT	23		24		17		24		29		19		29		22		24		38		249	24.9
5	Skjoldur	FR	24		21		19		21		26		20		30		22		24		36		243	24.3
6	Monaco F1	FR	22		24		19		24		25		13		25		22		29		38		241	24.1
7	Les Krocmous	FR	23		22		16		19		25		20		28		22		22		40		237	23.7
8	4 de Coeur	FR	21		20		17		25		21		18		26		19		25		38		230	23.0
9	Aerokart Ak'demie Monaco	FR	21		20		17		23		24		17		28		20		22		36		228	22.8
10	Oblivion	FR	23		21		18		22		27		20		21		15		21		36		224	22.4
11	XPerimental	US	18		19		18		21		23		18		27		21		24		33		222	22.2
12	Kuaisude	UK	19		16		14		20		22		15		21		18		17		31		193	19.3
13	La R Force	FR	13		15		13		17		18		12		20		17		17		31		173	17.3
14	Silver Linings	UK	13		16		11		17		17		12		19		17		16		24		162	16.2
15	Nexium	FR	15		15		13		14		14		11		22		15		17		23		159	15.9
16	Quo Volatis	DE	14		9		11		15		17		11		17		12		17		28		151	15.1
17	Syncope	IT	11		14		12		15		16		11		17		12		9		18		135	13.5

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Aethers at the Weembinamic 2025

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The situation has now become one of the main topics at Skydive Arizona and throughout the formation skydiving community. Clementine Le Bohec’s return to outdoor competition is a reality, and she has been training intensively with Aethers Lille. Mathieu Quizy was unable to return to his slot in time and is still not ready to rejoin the team. Le Bohec will therefore replace him throughout the world championship competition.

The impact of this personnel change in France’s national 4-way Open Class team naturally became the main topic of the NSL Live Talk conversation with Gary Smith. He still considers the new Aethers Lille lineup a contender for the gold medals, although the unexpected absence of Quizy has most likely made the competition even tighter than it would have been otherwise. Until now, the expected battle for the medals had not looked particularly close. Aethers Lille was widely considered the clear favorite for the FAI gold medals, while Golden Knights and NMP PCH HayaBusa were expected to fight for second and third place, pushing each other to get as close as possible to the French team’s level.

That outlook has apparently changed, turning the competition into a three-team battle for gold — unless Le Bohec can fill the tail slot to the required level in the very short time available. She competed as inside center for France’s national 4-way Women team from 2014 through 2018 before moving to the point slot in 2019. Now, she has posted a 24.3 average in the tail slot, which she will continue to occupy through Round 10 or 11 in Eloy.

France Outdoor Nationals 2026		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/AAA Class	6,H,J,N		12,F,Q,17		1,16,9		P,O,K,13		21,2,G		L,20,11		7,19,10		D,18,A,4		8,E,5		14,C,3		Total	Avg
1	Aethers Lille	31		28		23		30	-2	21		21		23		24		21	-1	21		243	24.3
2	Nephtys Maubeuge	25		21		18	-1	28		18		19		19		20		16		18		202	20.2
3	Hauts-de-France Lille Bondues	21		16		16		21		16		14		14		16		15	-1	14		163	16.3
4	Les Hermines deVannes	19		14		13		20		13		14		14		14		14		11		146	14.6

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Aethers with Clementine Le Bohec at the French Outdoor Nationals 2026

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