posted Jul 27th, 2015 - The topic of the new FAI/IPC 4-way category for Juniors on June 3rd also became a part of the story on July 11th, where the Sun Path Products NSL News re-published the June column of BLUE SKIES MAG's "Turning Points".

A few days later, another story on July 14th related to the same topic and then pointed out a few necessary updates of NSL Profiles.

SDC Rhythm XP member Christy Frikken received the first attention, while a few other names of female world class 4-way competitors were also mentioned in the story.

The closer look at the best female 4-way competitors in the history of the sport brought one name to the surface that actually stands out and deserves an update.

In fact, Eliana Rodriguez' NSL Profile has been updated two times after it was published in 2001, after she had won her first FAI/IPC gold medal in 4-way Women with Synchronicity.

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World Meet 2003		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Rd. 11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	1,11,12	M,J,E,10	K,16,6	13,14,5	D,22,4	9,C,Q,N	F,19,21	2,20,L	18,B,3	8,P,7	G,O,17,H	Total	Avg
1	Russia	23	19	24	16	26	21	19	18	21	15	19	221	20.1
1	Arizona Airspeed	23	19	24	17	23	20	19	17	24	16	19	221	20.1
3	France	25	17	21	13	25	20	16	16	24	16	-	193	19.3

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The first update was posted shortly afterwards in December 2001. Eliana Rodriguez had accepted an invitation by Arizona Airspeed and moved from Florida to Eloy where she started off with the Airspeed Zulu lineup.

She became the first female Airspeed member and three years later the first female Open Class 8-way world champion in the active Airspeed 8-way lineup of 2004.

Only Elena Vertiprakhova had won an FAI/IPC gold medal before Eliana Rodriguez, behind the camera as Russia's 8-way videographer in 2003.

It was the same world meet where Eliana Rodriguez won her first medal in the Open Class, for Arizona Airspeed's 2nd place in 8-way behind Russia.

The next profile update in March 2005 covered her second FAI/IPC gold medal at her third World Championship of Formation Skydiving, this time in 8-way.

The new update also explained that Eliana Rodriguez would switch back to 4-way with Airspeed Odyssey while trying to defend the 8-way gold medals in 2006.

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World Meet 2008		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	30	32	24	16	29	21	28	15	195	24.4
2	France	28	30	23	17	27	23	28	18	194	24.3
3	HayaBusa Defence	27	33	23	17	27	22	25	17	191	23.9

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That's where the profile story of Eliana Rodriguez ends so far, even though she continued for six more years and has become one of the most successful Formation Skydiving competitors in the history of the sport - male or female.

The Sun Path Products NSL News has kept up with her moves in bits and pieces and many stories over the years, while the profile story fell far behind.

Airspeed Odyssey did not win the qualification as the US national team for 2006, and DeLand Fire brought the FAI/IPC 4-way Excalibur sword and gold medals to the USA.

However, Eliana Rodriguez competed with Arizona Airspeed's 8-way lineup and won her second silver medal in Germany at her fourth world meet.

Airspeed Odyssey continued with a new lineup in 4-way, and the next two years ended with 4-way gold medals in Maubeuge 2008.

It was the fifth world meet for Eliana Rodriguez, and she had collected two gold medals in 4-way and one in 8-way by then, not to forget the two additional 8-way silver medals.

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Eliana Rodriguez	2001	2003	2004	2006	2008	2010
4-way Women	1st	-	-	-	-	-
4-way Open	-	-	-	-	1st	2nd
8-way Open	-	2nd	1st	2nd	-	-

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The World Meet 2008 was not the end of her competition career. Airspeed Odyssey continued for two more years and tried to defend the gold medals in Menzelinsk 2010.

It became a 3-point horse race with France, and Eliana Rodriguez added another silver medal to her collection, the 6th gold or silver medal at her sixth world meet.

The 10-year period of competing at each World Championship of Formation Skydiving between 2001 and 2010 and winning gold or silver at each of them was complete after Menzelinsk 2010. However, it did not mean that Eliana Rodriguez would not be at the world meets any longer.

She and Craig Girard have been in charge of the Dubai delegations at the world meets in 2012 and 2014 after moving to the United Arab Emirates. There they are now working on winning the next world meet medals as coaches...