posted Sep 9th, 2016 - The Mondial 2016 is the 15-year anniversary for the 4-way Women event at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving. The new category was officially added to the two traditional ones (4-way Open, 8-way) at the World Air Games 2001 in Empuriabrava, Spain, after a few earlier test events. Ten teams competed at the first 4-way Women competition at a world championship, and U.S. team Synchronicity won the first title. Eliana Rodriguez was in the U.S. lineup who would later win a gold medal in 4-way Open with Arizona Airspeed at the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge, France.

France did not have a 4-way Women team at the first world meet and joined the new category in 2003 with a 5th place. It became a 2nd place a year later in Croatia and again in 2006. Deep Blue then started the road to the first French gold medals with a 3rd place in 2008 and followed up with the title in Menzelinsk 2010. France has won all gold medals in 4-way Women ever since.

The SKYLEAGUE.COM coverage of the 2001 event cannot be found at the website, which had a very different design 15 years ago. However, it was still saved in the archives.

FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		8,19,24	A,L,22,H	E,10,D,11	21,6,4	B,18,C,14	G,5,20	2,1,16	M,K,12,9	15,23,P	O,17,Q,N	Total	Avg
1	Synchronicity	US	13	13	13	12	14	14	15	16	13	24	147	14.7
2	Norgie Girls	NO	13	15	15	13	13	12	13	15	13	22	144	14.4
3	4 Pleasure	SE	13	15	14	13	14	14	14	15	12	19	143	14.3
4	V-Max	UK	9	15	14	12	14	14	13	16	13	21	141	14.1
5	Russia	RU	11	11	12	12	9	12	12	13	11	12	115	11.5
6	South Africa	ZA	12	12	11	9	11	8	11	13	10	-	113	12.6
7	Italy	IT	10	10	11	9	5	11	11	9	11	-	87	9.7
8	Parat	DE	8	10	8	7	9	9	9	9	6	-	75	8.3
9	Spain	ES	4	7	6	4	8	6	4	9	5	-	53	5.9
10	Austria	AT	6	4	5	4	3	6	5	7	6	-	46	5.1

Sun Path Products NSL News on June 29th, 2001

Shannon Pilcher, our busy reporter from the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Spain, may get in trouble soon. In his last message, he admitted an earlier deal:

"I made a wager early on that if we were to average higher than a 14.0, I'd let the girls bleach my hair. With this draw, I'm predicting a 14.3+ will win, so if you don't recognize the blonde dude standing on the gold medal podium with the Norgie babes, don't fret, it's just me, and you can bet I will be several champagne bottles to the wind..."

Since the chances are not too bad for Norway TNT, we tried to imagine Shannon with the new hair style. Hmmmm...

Well, how are the chances to see the TNT coach bleaching his hair? Through the first four rounds, the Norwegian ladies were competing as if the gold medal was already on the way to Norway. In round five, Sweden caught up the missing point and shared the lead with TNT for only one round before 4-Pleasure completely took over.

In rounds six and seven, TNT let even the U.S. team catch up which had been five points behind through Round 5. Is TNT afraid of winning? Or are Shannon's girls afraid of the picture of their coach with bleached hair? He sure looks different. However, no doubt that he would love to lose the wager. There is a lot of work to do if they want to touch his hair on Saturday.

Sweden still continues their solid and confident performance on the way to a surprising gold medal. The U.S. team is now gaining momentum. And Norway has currently lost the momentum. It is time for the coach to blow some fresh air into the TNT sails. As the other two events, the female 4-way competition will be exciting until the very end.