posted Jul 11th, 2015 - We've seen this before... It was September 2013 the last time I brought our strange system of competition categories to the public attention. Then I gave up and settled with my passion and respect for the other gender: "So I just gave up my logical reasoning and decided to love the girls and their female 4-way category."

Nothing has changed for me — except we are now facing a similar situation, and we are about to miss another golden opportunity.

Kids and teenagers and their parents on 4-way teams have caught my attention — and my full support — since the first wind tunnels were used to share the fun with a new generation of 4-way fans.

What at a great pleasure it has been to share the element with them, even if they cannot jump from planes. Many SKYLEAGUE.COM articles have been dedicated to the juniors in our sport, and many more will come, as new young tunnel flyers enter the sport on a daily basis.

TURNING POINTS: Welcome, Juniors

Unfortunately, our officials are once again drawing a line between the fans of the element in a way that I would not support. They are in the process of separating juniors and seniors similar to the way they separated the genders (which was not done equally, as we still don't have a 4-way men's division even though we have the 4-way women's division; boys and girls are still allowed to play/fly/compete together in 4-way open).

It is nothing new or unusual that I see things differently than our officials in the sport. Fortunately, we have the freedom to create and express different views and often they even merge, modify and transpire into great results.

The officials felt like offering female 4-way competitors their own sets of medals in a separate category, while I appreciated the unique opportunity for girls to compete with boys and show that they can do it just as good or better.

There is no other sport I know where both genders have equal opportunity and potential to win in the same category.

World Meet 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way AAA	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	French Girls (FR)	21	25	22	20	27	21	18	17	19	24	214	21.4
5	Barkli (RU)	24	23	20	22	25	21	19	16	18	26	214	21.4
7	Golden Knights (US)	22	25	21	21	23	18	16	15	19	24	204	20.4
8	Dubai Asaar Black (AE)	18	20	17	17	20	14	15	13	17	20	171	17.1

The same thing is happening again and both perspectives seem to be unchanged.

The officials feel like separating the juniors from the seniors in the flying chambers, while I see it once again as a missed golden opportunity for our unique sport.

Nobody has separated the juniors from the seniors at indoor competitions, until our outdoor International Parachuting Commission (IPC) officials decided to become involved with indoor competition as well as outdoor.

This year's first officially IPC sanctioned FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships 2015 at the Hurricane Factory in Prague, Czech Republic, includes a 4-way junior category for teenagers between ages 14 and 17.

I am not happy with this development and I do not see the benefits for the sport. When the 4-way female division was added in 2001 the officials said they expected increasing participation in the sport.

World Challenge 2015			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		O,L,Q	4,21	P,F,H	K,J,E	N,M,B	C,2	19,A	G,D,6	8,9	7,8	Total	Avg
1	Flyspot Chicks	PL	25	12	35	25	31	16	15	15	14	15	203	20.3
2	PB FIRE	CZ	23	14	29	24	30	12	13	16	14	13	188	18.8
3	Team Rudi	BE	22	13	27	27	17	13	14	15	14	15	177	17.7
4	Funzies	DK	19	15	22	17	24	13	12	16	14	13	165	16.5
5	Vossvind Girls	NO	19	14	22	21	22	14	11	13	11	13	160	16.0
6	Brebe	IT	18	12	19	18	21	13	11	15	12	12	151	15.1
7	brain storming	IT	13	10	25	17	22	11	11	12	10	11	142	14.2
8	Sapphire	IE	17	11	22	18	23	9	7	12	11	11	141	14.1
9	#WithoutEoin	UK	14	9	23	18	21	9	12	11	10	11	138	13.8
10	Perpetual Chaos	UK	14	8	19	17	17	9	7	11	10	10	122	12.2
10	Atmosfera ONE	PT	14	11	23	9	20	11	12	6	10	6	122	12.2
12	Assioma	IT	15	8	22	12	17	9	8	11	10	9	121	12.1
13	Atmosfera NEW	PT	14	9	17	16	16	9	10	10	5	9	115	11.5
14	Hybris	DK	15	10	17	12	13	9	7	12	11	8	114	11.4
15	Bodyflight Black Magic	UK	12	8	18	10	13	10	7	13	7	11	109	10.9
16	Garbatans	UK	9	9	15	12	15	6	5	9	8	7	95	9.5
17	Satori Aqua	UK	13	6	10	13	13	5	7	8	7	9	91	9.1
18	Dino4	UK	12	6	15	8	14	4	8	6	8	7	88	8.8
19	Gravitationally Ambiguous	UK	6	6	3	8	8	2	2	5	4	7	51	5.1

It did not materialize and only moved female 4-way competitors from one team to another.

On the other hand, IPC officials and their media never pointed out the special achievements of female competitors who became world champions or won medals in the 4-way open class (e.g., Dawn English, Eliana Rodriguez, Arianna De Benedetti, Natasha Montgomery, Anais Maillet, Cathy Bouette, Sara Curtis).

Only the special attention of the other media outlets in skydiving recognized those incredible female athletes who managed to keep up with and outperform male participants in the same sport.

You may have noticed I included VFS 4-way where the situation is the same. Fortunately, IPC has not created a female category for VFS 4-way yet, which has probably not been done for different reasons (lack of participation).

Anyhow, and back to the junior topic, we are facing the situation once again: IPC is separating 4-way competitors from each other without a good reason. I don't see why a "junior" with enough indoor training would not be able to keep up with any world-class 4-way team. Just take a look at 15-year-old Yannick Bisson of the Canadian 4-way team 4Astrophe, who used to train and compete with his sister Valerie (18) and father Richard (definitely not a "junior"). He flies circles around "senior" 4-way competitors at a 20-average level in the open class competition. Do IPC officials really think he needs his own category?

Canadian Indoor 2015		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	17,D,2	21,10,K	J,6,15	C,14,3	L,Q,O,7	4,19,A	H,11,16	18,G,5	Total	Avg
1	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	24	17	24	17	31	21	21	20	175	21.9
2	4Astrophe	21	16	24	14	29	21	20	16	161	20.1
3	Phoenix	17	14	19	16	21	17	17	16	137	17.1
4	Multiple Fourgasms	10	7	4	7	9	1	8	6	52	6.5

Maybe we want to keep the juniors away from us so they don't embarrass us in the flying chamber...

The golden opportunity is the fact that EVERY BODY can perform equally in freefall or tunnel air. There is no other competitive sport where this is possible. How about using it as a marketing opportunity? We have never understood why we don't seem to be attractive enough to the media's and the general public's interest.

Here we are with a situation where everybody can participate and feel what it is like. And here we are with a sport that can bring all genders and all ages together in the same flying chamber. Incredible and unique.

Don't get me wrong, I still fully support the other categories (AAA - AA - A - RRR - RR - R) as they carefully move new competitors forward step'by step, according to skill and experience level. But girls and juniors? Let 'em in, I want to compete together with them. For now, at least I can still create "extended leaderboards" where 4-way open, 4-way women and 4-way juniors are one big family...