posted Jan 25th, 2019 - The NSL News covered the French Formation Skydiving competition plans for the next two years on January 21st and followed up with a profile of the new 4-way Women lineup. The first story, which explained national coach Mathieu Bernier's priority on 8-way competition, introduced the lineup of the new 8-way team, which consists of the two national 4-way lineups. The new 4-way Women team is the first half with one change in the lineup. The French 4-way Open Class team has two new members, Alban Rumolo and Aurélien Lemaire.

Besides competing for France in their respective categories, the previous two national 4-way teams have also had their internal competition since they were selected in 2015. The lineup of the 4-way Open Class team never changed, while Pamela Lissajoux replaced Anais Maillet after the FAI World Cup 2015.

The internal battle went up and down over the national teams' four years together, and Aerodyne Weembi Girls eventually took the final lead in the middle of the 2018 season. The 4-way Women team finished as the third best outdoor team in the world behind NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed, with the French 4-way Open Class team right behind. A new 2-year period now begins for the two French national 4-way teams, and the 4-way Women lineup seems to have an advantage at the starting point. However, the situation is different this time, as both 4-way teams are also team mates in the 8-way lineup and will spend a lot of time together.

The 4-way Open Class lineup is not officially confirmed yet for the whole 2-year period. However, the new team gets at least the starting position and will begin with some training this year.

Competition between the French national teams in 4-way Open and 4-way Women since 2015

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Damien Gouriou has the longest history as a member of the French national 4-way Open Class team and was selected by national coach Jeremie Rollett in 2013. He trained and competed for two years with his current national coach Mathieu Bernier, Julien Degen and Pierre Emmanuel Balageas, and the team missed a medal position in Prostejov 2014.

Mathieu Bernier became the new national coach, and Damien Gouriou was the only team member who continued with the new lineup of the French 4-way Open Class team.

There he met his new 4-way and 8-way team mate Kevin Mansion, and Aerodyne Realfly came back with a set of bronze medals from Australia last year.

Like most French national team members, Damien Gouriou started his progression into the national 4-way Open Class lineup in one of the national B-Teams. He competed with assistant coach Marin Ferre and his 4-way team mate of 2015 - 2018, Laurence Fugen, at the World Challenge 2010. A year later he continued with a new B-Team lineup where he met his 2015 - 2018 team mate Charles Rommel.

Damien Gouriou and Emmanuel Balageas both continued with the B-Team in 2012 until they were selected for the new French national team in 4-way Open in 2013, while Charles Rommel joined the French national 8-way team for two years and until his nomination for the 4-way lineup in 2015.

Damien Gouriou also collected his first 8-way experiences together with Christine Malnis in Martial Ferre's Veloce 8-way project. At a later Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, he was also a member of the HayaBusa 8-way pickup team Voltevobusa.

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Kevin Mansion has been Damien Gouriou's team mate since 2015. Together they have collected two sets of FAI outdoor bronze medals, at Skydive Chicago in 2016 and in Australia last year. They did not compete at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 in Montreal with Aerodyne Realfly, as Weembi High Rollers had taken the French 4-way Open Class slot.

He connected with his 4-way team mate of 2015 - 2018, Charles Rommel, in the French AA Class champion team of 2011, Lacrymogene Agen Aquitaine. He moved up into the AAA Class in 2012 with a new team, Diomeda Veloce Airbus, where he met his team mate for the upcoming two years, Aurelien Lemaire.

However, they separated again when Kevin Mansion and Charles Rommel trained and competed with a new 8-way B-Team under Jeremie Rollet's supervision as a player coach. Kevin Mansion and Charles Rommel were then selected for the new national 8-way team who won bronze medals in Prostejov 2014, and together they were also selected for the new French national team in 4-way Open for the next four years (2015 - 2018).

Kevin Mansion is the only team member of the new French Formation Skydiving delegation who was previously in national 4-way and 8-way teams both.

4-way Open Class medals at the FAI/IPC world meets since 1985

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Aurelien Lemaire has been training and competing with French 4-way B-Teams for several years and has now been selected for his first national team. He has also been the alternate for the French national 8-way team before.

He started out to make his name in 8-way, where he won French national silver medals in 2013. French 8-way legend Emmanuel Sarrazin was his player coach that year.

He was then selected for the most promising B-Team that France had put together. His team mates in 2014 with Artemis Samur Flyzone were Clementine le Bohec, Pamela Lissajoux and Eliott Lesimple, with Patrice Kerdudo on camera.

Aurelien Lemaire trained and competed with this B-Team for five years (2014 - 2018) while the team members changed. Even his videographer for the upcoming two 4-way years, David Ricard, was in the active lineup for a while, and new Aerodyne Weembi Girls member Gaelle Giesen was his 4-way team mate in 2017 and 2018, as well.

He won his FAI silver medal as the alternate for the French 8-way team in 2016, and now he is finally getting his opportunity in the French national teams. The compensation for his patience is a very busy 2-year period with training and competition in 8-way and 4-way both.

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Alban Rumolo is the youngest and the newest member of the French national Formation Skydiving delegation. With his 18 years of age and less than 400 jumps since 2015 he will probably listen carefully to advice from coach Mathieu Bernier and his team mates.

However, the national coach believes that he has the same outstanding talent that other former French 4-way and 8-way world champions of the highest caliber have shown (Mathieu Bernier himself and his brother Guillaume, Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollett) when they were selected by national coach Jerome David.

Alban Rumolo made it into the B-Team last year and competed at two meets in France with his new 8-way team mate Gaelle Giesen and Aurelien Lemaire. He was hoping for the next step soon to come, as he said at the beginning of the 2018 season:

"My next goal would be to average 20 points at the 2018 French Championships, then be hopeful for the years to come. My long-term goal would be to join the French team in a few years."

Espoir Saumur Weembi did not get to the 20-average level at the national championships; however, his opportunity still came earlier than he was hoping for...

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David Ricard will be filming the 4-way Open Class team.

He was an active member of the same B-Team (Espoir Saumur Weembi) and turned points first only with Aurelien Lemaire in 2016, then also with Gaelle Giesen in 2017.

Then he switched to the camera position for the French national team in 4-way Open and filmed the team to the bronze medals last year in Australia.

He continues on camera for the new 4-was lineup.

Michel Laynaud will be filming the 8-way team, and Julie Fournier is the team videographer in 4-way Women.