posted Oct 19th, 2026 - The opening ceremony of the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026 featured festivities similar to those at the previous edition in 2022, when participation was considerably higher in 4-way Open, with 21 teams, while 4-way Women and 8-way had the same numbers as this year, with four and five teams, respectively. As at other major skydiving events, teams moved into competition preparations as soon as they received the competition draw.

The latest NSL TV Unfiltered video takes viewers behind the scenes to show how teams prepare for the competition. Preparations take place wherever space is available at the drop zone, beginning with dirt dives near the location of the manual competition draw and spreading across the facilities. Eventually, teams move to the creepers to work through the finer details of their sequences, where space and equipment become more limited.

Paraclete XP8 began its initial preparations without Niklas Hemlin, who was busy coaching the Golden Knights as they received their own ten-round competition draw. The sequence numbers and letters are identical across the three formation skydiving disciplines — 4-way Open, 4-way Women, and 8-way — although the 8-way dive pool is naturally very different despite using the same numbers and letters.

XP8 alternate Ian Pedowitz is assigned to the front half of the 8-way formation and stepped in for Niklas Hemlin during the dirt dives and creeper work. John D’Annunzio had already arrived and took over Jeana Billings’ position during preparations for the first four rounds scheduled for Monday morning. Jeana Billings is expected to return to action on Tuesday.

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NSL TV Unfiltered: Opening ceremony and late preparations at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026

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The Infamous Round 1: Jill Stephenson and Ian Pedowitz read XP8’s reactions

It was then time for the infamous Round 1 of the 8-way competition on Monday morning. NSL TV Unfiltered captured as much of the action as possible during what is often the most important and nerve-racking round of a competition.

Canada’s 8-way team shared the first load of the day with Germany’s Operation Adler. Under normal circumstances, Germany’s 8-way team, the bronze medalists in 2022 and 2024, would have a later starting position because the competition order is determined by the placing at the most recent previous world championship. However, two Operation Adler members are also competing in 4-way Open with Airbus Illertissen.

Meet director Randy Connell and his staff therefore worked to make the transition between the two events as easy as possible for competitors with double duties. Starting earlier in the 8-way event gives Felix Pfeiffer and Alexander Prendinger more time to prepare for the opening round of 4-way Open once the four 8-way rounds are completed.

After Round 1, the NSL News caught up with XP8 alternates Jill Stephenson and Ian Pedowitz in the landing area. Both know their teammates extremely well, and their observations of the team’s reactions immediately after landing offered an early indication of how the opening round had gone. They could already tell from their teammates’ behavior that XP8 had made a strong start. The scoreboard soon confirmed their impressions: after just one round, Paraclete XP8 held a four-point lead over Qatar’s Falcons.

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NSL TV Unfiltered: 8-way Round 1 at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026

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