posted Jul 1st, 2008 - June 25 was the offical deadline date to submit entry forms and payments for the participation at the 18th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2008 (World Meet 2008).

The time has come where the field of teams is complete - with one exception - and the registered competitors know who will be in the race for the medals and for all other positions on the leaderboard. Teams from 22 different nations will compete in Maubeuge, France: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cypres, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.

21 of these 22 nations will be represented in the 4-way Open Class event. Only Spain does not have a national team in the 4-way Open Class. Spanish teams compete only in 8-way and in the female category. Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States have national teams competing in each of the three Formation Skydiving events.

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One of the biggest upsets has already happened before the competition has even begun. Russia, one of the three powerhouses in Formation Skydiving competition, has not registered an 8-way team. The bronze medal position of the World Meet 2006 in Germany will not be defended and is now open for grabs.

This is really a big surprise since Russia's 8-way teams have won medals for their country at each World Meet since 1987. Russia competed for the first time at a FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships in 1985 and made it to the bronze medal level already two years later.

Several silver and bronze medals followed between 1987 and 1999 before Russia made it to the very top of the 8-way world with gold medals in 2001 and 2003. Then the Russian 8-way teams fell back to bronze medal positions in 2004 and 2006, while the scoring level was decreasing, as well.

USA, France and Russia have shared all 8-way medals between 1987 and 2006. The Canadian 8-way team of 1985, with Evolution member Michel LeMay in the lineup, was the last 8-way team that managed to steal a set of 8-way medals at a World Meet. It looks as if a new nation will have the same opportunity 23 years later.

The only exception in the registration process is the open slot in the female 4-way event. France could not provide the names of the national team members yet. Two female lineups, Deep Blue and White and Sea, are still in the race for the status as the French national team at the World Meet. This weekend's Coupe de France competition will be the final qualification event for both teams.

The participation at the World Meet 2008 is lower in the total number of teams compared to the World Meets in 2004 and 2006 (42 - 46 - 39). The 4-way Open Class event lost four national teams compared to Germany 2006 (25 - 21), the female category lost three teams (12 - 9), only the 8-way event matched the participation of 2006 (9 - 9).

This is actually surprising since 4-way Formation Skydiving competition is generally on an upswing, as far as the participation at league events all around the NSL Network is concerned. There must be other reasons for some national teams to stay away from the top event of Formation Skydiving competition.

One reason could be the challenging switches between left-hand and right-hand doors at the World Meets, as it also happened between 2001 and 2003.

Sweden, as an example, has not registered a national 4-way team for the World Meet 2008 yet. Blue Spirits members mentioned in an interview with the NSL News earlier this year that the team may not even want to go to France this year and save the efforts for the next World Meet in 2010.

Several previous NSL News articles have already explained the difficulties and challenges even for the top teams to accommodate a completely different exit from the other side of the jump plane. Teams usually like to see their training efforts rewarded with higher scores. It is painful to train very hard just to maintain the same scoring level or even lose ground due to different exits and subterminal moves.

The decreasing participation this year may be reason enough for the FAI and IPC commissions to evaluate the situation and possibly look for a solution that would not force the national teams to completely change their training and continuity plans. The IPC rules for a World Meet could require each host to provide the same aircraft, ideally with a tailgate, which would allow teams to train both left-hand and right-hand patterns.

However, the field of teams for the World Meet 2008 is promising enough and guarantees extremely exciting competition everywhere. The NSL News will follow up very soon with more previews of each Formation Skydiving event.