posted Aug 25th, 2016 - The introduction of the teams at the upcoming Mondial 2016 continues with the 8-way competition.

The number of teams at Skydive Chicago is identical with the one at the World Meet 2014 in Prostejov. Eight teams are registered for the 8-way competition. The Netherlands (M8trix) and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai Asaar) will not be represented at this year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving after competing in Prostejov, while Brazil and Qatar are sending 8-way teams to the world meet this year.

Four of the other six national 8-way teams at the Mondial 2016 are back with similar rosters as in 2014, while France and Russia have completely different lineups in the new battle for the three sets of medals.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Tanay	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	France	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Microclim8	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Australia	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Maximum Ride	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Brazil	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

There may not even be too much of a battle for the medals this year. The Golden Knights, reigning 8-way world champions of 2012 and 2014, seem to be far ahead of all other 8-way teams in the world. Even the new French lineup, which is loaded with former 8-way world champions, consider themselves only underdogs in the competition for gold medals.

The Golden Knights had only one change in the roster since 2014, and new member Andrew Starr has already posted a 23.7 average at the USPA Nationals 2015 and a 22.2 average at the World Air Games 2015.

The French 8-way lineup had posted a 22.5 average at the Mondial Dubai 2012 and lost only two of the ten rounds against the Golden Knights. However, the strong French lineup of 2012 had a long break and came back together only this year.

Prostejov 2014			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
R.	8-way Open		E,3,C,5	F,G,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	Q,10,N,L	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	24	22	15	26	22	21	19	26	21	20	-	216	21.6
2	Barkli	RU	19	18	13	25	14	16	16	19	18	13	20	171	17.1
3	Venturi	FR	19	16	14	23	18	13	18	19	15	16	19	171	17.1
4	Microclim8	UK	14	14	11	15	12	13	12	15	12	13	-	131	13.1
5	M8Trix	NL	15	13	11	17	11	13	13	15	10	12	-	130	13.0
6	Australia	AU	12	13	11	18	11	12	12	12	10	12	-	123	12.3
7	Dubai Asaar	AE	11	9	7	13	4	10	9	8	11	-	-	82	9.1
8	Maximum Ride	CA	10	9	6	11	8	8	8	7	7	-	-	74	8.2

The lineup is almost identical with the Dubai team. Only Guillaume Bernier is not coming back, and Damien Sorlin has taken his slot. The team members know each other very well after thousands of training jumps with similar lineups between 2006 and 2012. However, the consistency of the Golden Knights on the highest level in the history of the sport is a big factor in the 8-way game.

France may hope for a similar situation as it occurred in Dubai 2012, only with reversed positions. The French team won or tied eight rounds and lost the meet with two bad rounds. Chances are not too great though that the Golden Knights might give away a round or two in a similar way.

France is probably just as solid in 2nd place as the Golden Knights are the top favorite for the gold medals. Russia has a strong 8-way lineup, however, the Black Cat members in the Tanay lineup (Vasily Korotkov, Valentin Ilin) also train and compete in 4-way. It will be difficult for Russia to defend the 2014 silver medals successfully.

Mondial Dubai 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
R.	8-way Open		N,21,B,5	14,C,13	22,M,20	17,H,16	J,E,12,4	7,19,15	G,K,8,2	O,L,F,P,A	10,11,18	9,Q,D,1	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21	19	27	26	26	18	20	28	19	25	229	22.9
2	France	FR	22	19	22	23	27	20	20	28	19	25	225	22.5
3	Barkli	RU	19	18	22	22	21	15	15	24	16	20	192	19.2

Russia's Tanay lineup probably does not have to worry too much about the bronze medal position either.

In fact, it happened only two times in history that any other nation won 8-way medals. Ex3mo's 8-way lineup won bronze for Italy in Maubeuge 2008, when Russia did not send an 8-way team.

It happened only once that a different country won an 8-way medal when all three Formation Skydiving powerhouses had their teams at the world meet. Canada took the 3rd place when Russia sent an 8-way team to a world meet for the first time in 1985.

The Qatar Falcons are probably the strongest contender for the position behind the medal rankings and may even hope for a battle for the 3rd place...