posted Jan 2nd, 2019 - It is no news that France has generated very successful teams in 4-way Women. In fact, the French female 4-way competitors have won the world championship titles in this specific event since 2010, with one interruption in 2016.

I have also pointed out several times in the past how female 4-way competitors have joined forces with boys in some of the best Open Class teams in the world. It still does not happen very often that a lineup of four female 4-way competitors get together and get to the top level in the Open Class.

All of the above then combined naturally for a fact that was established at the recent FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Australia. The French national team in 4-way Women, Aerodyne Weembi Girls, defeated all other 4-way teams in the world, except for the Open Class world champions from Belgium, NMP PCH HayaBusa, and Arizona Airspeed.

The French Aerodyne Weembi Girls did not post their scores on the same leaderboard, together with all other boys and girls in the Open Class. However, both categories are using the same competition draw and the same judging panels, which allows a direct and honest comparison of the results. So it is a fact that the French 4-way Women team is the third best 4-way team in the world.

FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/Women Combined		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	21	27	24	22	62	22	20	27	22	279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	21	27	24	24	60	26	22	27	20	277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	29	20	24	22	25	56	23	18	22	18	257	25.7
4	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	19	24	23	24	52	20	17	24	19	251	25.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	14	24	21	22	53	21	18	20	17	234	23.4
6	Echochamber	SE	25	16	21	17	20	48	14	18	21	15	215	21.5
7	Amnesya	IT	24	14	20	18	18	48	18	14	21	15	210	21.0
8	NFTO	UK	20	15	22	19	18	38	18	17	19	16	202	20.2
9	Satori XL	UK	21	14	21	19	19	37	19	17	18	16	201	20.1
9	Airheads	CH	22	14	19	17	18	44	16	16	18	17	201	20.1
11	Evolution	CA	21	13	22	18	15	43	15	15	19	15	196	19.6
12	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	14	17	17	16	45	15	14	18	15	192	19.2
13	Tanay Wolves	RU	22	14	18	17	16	35	17	14	18	14	185	18.5
14	Rotor Out	AU	21	13	18	14	16	32	13	13	18	14	172	17.2
15	Team X	SE	17	10	18	16	14	36	15	13	18	12	169	16.9
16	Phoenix XP	US	17	12	17	14	15	37	16	12	14	13	167	16.7
16	Boomerang Betty	AU	19	11	18	14	15	32	15	13	17	13	167	16.7
18	CTR Optimum	BR	19	10	17	15	13	31	14	14	18	13	164	16.4
19	Fuzion Voltige	CA	17	9	18	14	15	34	14	13	14	13	161	16.1
20	Papea Masculino	ES	17	13	18	13	13	28	14	14	13	12	155	15.5
21	Skynamite	DE	19	12	16	14	14	27	13	12	15	12	154	15.4
22	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	16	11	13	14	15	28	15	15	14	12	153	15.3
23	Meraki	ZA	14	11	14	14	13	28	12	12	14	12	144	14.4
24	New Zealand	NZ	10	9	12	11	10	21	7	11	10	11	112	11.2
25	Paraguay	PY	10	8	10	7	9	17	7	8	10	8	94	9.4
26	Cyprus	CY	13	8	9	8	7	19	7	8	9	5	93	9.3

TURNING POINTS: French Girl Power

That is not the end of the story, and it is also not meant to be another input for the discussion of the dubious gender separation in 4-way Formation Skydiving competition. It gets even much better and becomes very impressive.

Two of the Aerodyne Weembi Girls, Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis, have also been training with another team at the same time, the Weembi Mix, with 4-way Open Class world champions Julien Degen and Roy Janssen in the lineup. Weembi Mix is only an indoor team, at least at this point in time, and they scared the Belgian indoor and outdoor world champions already at the World Challenge 2018 in April with a serious challenge.

Arizona Airspeed competed at the World Challenge too and did not even have a chance against the two boys and two girls from France. NMP PCH HayaBusa barely got away by four points (349 - 345) in Bedford.

Weembi Mix was back in action shortly after the outdoor world meet in Australia, when most of the best indoor experts in the world traveled to Bahrain for the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018 in October, including the reigning Belgian indoor world champions. Guess what happened: Yes, the Weembi Mix lineup with, Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis, won the meet and are currently the best 4-way indoor team in the world.

Get it: Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis are the world champions in 4-way Women with the French national team in this category, and they are also the best 4-way indoor competitors in the world, together with their male team mates Julien Degen and Roy Janssen. Chances are not too bad that they could also win an outdoor world championship with the Weembi Mix lineup.

I have never explored the rules to find out if a female 4-way competitor could actually win gold medals in 4-way Women and 4-way Open. That's obviously not possible for a male 4-way competitor, but I don't see a reason why the rules should not allow such a scenario, even though it would be bizarre.

Formation Skydiving competitors may win medals in 4-way and 8-way at the same event - why not in 4-way and 4-way, or 4-way and VFS, or 8-way and VFS, etc.? Practically, it has happened only once in the sport's history, when current French national coach Mathieu Bernier won gold medals in 4-way and 8-way in Menzelinsk 2010.

Alright, impressive enough by Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis, but it still becomes even better and even more impressive.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/Women Combined		K,17,J,21	4,H,F,11	18,L,16	5,M,O,C	N,8,P,19	6,9,10	D,12,15	Q,B,G,22	20,E,14	7,3,2	Total	Avg
1	Weembi Mix MF	FR	34	35	31	57	33	31	30	39	29	26	345	34.5
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	35	35	27	47	33	31	31	38	28	28	333	33.3
3	Amnesya	IT	30	28	24	46	26	27	21	30	24	24	280	28.0
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	28	29	21	45	26	27	21	33	24	25	279	27.9
5	Echochamber	SE	30	30	23	37	27	25	22	32	22	23	271	27.1
6	France Odins	FR	29	26	21	37	28	25	19	27	24	23	259	25.9
7	ACM Weembi	UK	26	26	23	36	27	25	23	28	20	21	255	25.5
8	NFTO	UK	27	26	20	37	25	23	22	29	22	23	254	25.4
9	China	CN	27	23	22	32	25	22	20	29	24	23	247	24.7
10	Russian Thunder	RU	24	22	20	36	23	24	22	28	21	22	242	24.2
11	Papea Masculino	ES	25	24	14	35	23	22	17	29	21	20	230	23.0
11	France	FR	26	23	20	36	24	19	19	26	17	20	230	23.0
13	Team X	SE	24	26	18	31	22	21	16	27	20	19	224	22.4
14	China	CN	22	20	20	28	23	22	18	24	20	21	218	21.8
15	HF Chicks	CZ	25	23	15	26	23	21	17	24	21	21	216	21.6
16	Monaco	MC	22	23	16	27	22	22	19	25	18	18	212	21.2
17	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	23	25	16	27	22	20	17	23	19	18	210	21.0
18	Satori	UK	24	19	18	31	18	20	18	23	18	19	208	20.8
19	HF Flying Circus	CZ	21	23	19	28	20	19	17	22	17	18	204	20.4
19	Eros	UK	22	23	17	25	19	19	19	24	18	18	204	20.4
21	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	24	19	18	30	20	18	15	23	17	18	202	20.2
21	Zero-G	RU	22	22	17	27	20	20	16	22	16	20	202	20.2
23	Jazz Republic	ZA	19	23	16	28	20	19	17	24	15	17	198	19.8
24	No Limits	RU	22	20	18	28	20	20	12	22	17	17	196	19.6
25	Bahrain 1	BH	17	23	15	25	14	17	15	23	18	15	182	18.2
26	Equinox	LT	17	15	14	20	17	16	12	17	17	17	162	16.2
27	Papea	ES	19	18	12	17	17	14	15	19	10	14	155	15.5
28	Sky....	CZ	15	18	10	16	16	16	14	19	16	13	153	15.3
29	Bahrain 2	BH	13	14	12	18	14	15	14	17	15	16	148	14.8
30	Zephyrus	UK	12	12	10	16	13	12	10	17	11	13	126	12.6

They both had to get prepared for their gold medal events with two different teams, and they needed much of the available time for indoor and outdoor training with Aerodyne Weembi Girls to win the outdoor competition in Australia with their team mates Clementine Le Bohec and Pamela Lissajoux. Then they had to switch back and forth between the two different lineups to use enough of the remaining time for the indoor training with Weembi Mix.

I have never done something like that, but it must be difficult enough to be ready for the different physics and dynamics of two different teams, especially when switching back and forth between the male and the female style of 4-way competition. I can only imagine that the style MUST be somehow similar enough to make it possible at all. I am not even talking about technical details yet, and both teams do NOT have the same coaching...

Is that impressive enough? It's still not the end.

Most of the outdoor teams who competed at the world meet in Australia did not follow up with the indoor world meet in Bahrain for many good reasons. Only five of the 19 teams attended both events. The transition from one meet environment to the other is not easy, even though outdoor teams usually train in wind tunnels on a regular basis.

HayaBusa member David Grauwels explained the specifics of the transition, which is even more challenging on a high performance level. His team had decided to be good sports anyway and face the toughest indoor opponents in Bahrain. Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis had to master the same transition and also get in tune and synch again with their indoor team mates, who came fresh and rested to Bahrain.

They mastered both tasks and won two FAI gold medals within three weeks, one in 4-way Women in Australia and one in 4-way Open in Bahrain. They would have won bronze medals for France in 4-way Open in Australia, too. However, the French 4-way Open Class team, Aerodyne Realfly, with Laurence Fugen in the lineup, took care of that.

Fact is still that the French national team in 4-way Women outscored the 4-way Open Class team in Australia while winning the gold medals in their category, and that Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis added the Open Class indoor gold medals in Bahrain.

Okay, that's enough. I am glad that I am not the French national coach who has to decide who competes for France in which category...