posted May 21st, 2020 - The recent NSL News updates of events in the past and from the unpublished archives of the time period between the world meets in 2001 and 2003 covered mostly the U.S. teams on their way to the qualification for the 2003 event at the USPA Nationals 2002, where the Golden Knights eventually upset Airspeed Vertical's reigning 4-way world champions of 2001 and DeLand Majik both.

The DeLand Norgies, FAI bronze medalists of 2001, were also a part of the same 4-way history, which was presented by interviews with some of the team members that had not been published earlier.

There is a missing piece of this time period though, which is partially covered in Jerome David's NSL Profile. It is the French national 4-way team that was rebuilt by coach Jerome David after winning the 4-way gold medals at the FAI World Meet 1999.

The new lineup with three returning members (Marin Ferre, Davide Moy, videographer Laurent Pechberty) plus Julien Losantos and Erwan Pouliquen, had given Airspeed Vertical already a tough 2-point battle in 2001. The three medal winners (U.S.A. - France - Norway) then continued for two more years with exactly the same lineups.

---

FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		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	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	25	21	19	20	20	20	23	17	30	214	21.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	19	20	20	18	21	21	19	23	20	31	212	21.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	19	22	20	18	19	19	19	21	18	31	206	20.6
4	Sebastian XL	UK	17	22	20	17	18	19	19	21	18	28	199	19.9
5	Endeavour	CH	14	17	15	14	14	16	15	17	13	26	161	16.1
6	Sinapsi PD	IT	12	13	17	15	15	15	14	19	15	24	159	15.9
7	Germany	DE	13	13	15	15	16	15	14	18	13	-	132	14.7
8	Russia	RU	13	17	14	13	14	14	16	15	13	-	129	14.3
8	Belgium	BE	14	14	14	13	14	14	15	17	14	-	129	14.3
10	Japan	JP	14	14	15	14	16	13	11	17	12	-	126	14.0

---

The French part of the story became even more interesting when national coach Jerome David decided to try what Arizona Airspeed had missed to accomplish in 1999 and 2001: Winning gold in 4-way, and then also in 8-way with the same 4-way lineup in the 8-way team. Airspeed had won 8-way gold in 1999 and finished 2nd in 4-way.

Airspeed Vertical tried again in 2001 and won 4-way gold by two points over the new French lineup, while Airspeed's 8-way team placed 2nd behind Russia. Arizona Airspeed has never tried again to win double-gold ever since.

France was new to the same challenging goal before Jerome David thought that he had the right combination of talent and experience beginning in 2002. He had his new and strong 4-way team (Marin Ferre, Davide Moy, Julien Losantos, Erwan Pouliquen) and recruited Paul Grisoni, Martial Ferre, Eddy Bens and Manu Sarrazin for the 8-way lineup.

The new French 4-way team was showing at the Valentine's Meet 2002 that they were not far behind the reigning 4-way world champions on their home turf at Skydive Arizona. They followed up later in France with a new 4-way world record for a single round (42-pointer for B-F-L-A-N) and were on even level (221) with DeLand Majik (224) Airspeed Vertical (222) at the FAI World Cup. The new French 8-way team won in Spain, and Jerome David seemed to be on track with his double-gold goal.

---

Valentine's Meet 2002			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		5,3,H		1,P,K,14		13,11,D		C,12,8		19,M,17		G,J,9,20		L,O,4,F		2,10,22		15,Q,18		16,7,A		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Vertical	US	21		19		21		19		19	-2	25		28		16		19		24		211	21.1
2	Perris Maubeuge	FR	20		19		19		17		21		24		25		17		19		23		204	20.4
3	Golden Knights Gold	US	20		19		19		18		22		23		24		16		17		21		199	19.9
4	Airspeed Zulu	US	18		17		17		17		18		21	-2	0		13	-2	16		18		155	15.5
5	Golden Knights Black	US	15	-1	15		12		12		15		16	-1	15	-1	12		14		13	-3	139	13.9
6	Endeavor	CH	12		11	-1	10	-2	12		12		15		17		9	-2	13		15		126	12.6
7	AZ Inertia	US	10		11		11		7	-2	11		4	-2	12		9		9		11		95	9.5
8	AZ Delirium	US	7	-2	10		7	-1	8	-2	10	-1	9	-4	13		9		8	-1	13		94	9.4

---

It looked even better for France after the world cup in 2002. The two U.S. 4-way teams in 1st and 2nd place in Spain would not even compete for the U.S. delegation a year later, and France was nine points ahead of the Golden Knights after nine rounds. The Golden Knights did not get to complete Round 10 after the second cut. The 2002 test for the double-duties was very successful, as well, when the French 8-way team won their meet.

A year later, on French home turf in Gap, the 4-way team lived up to all expectations and took back to France the William H. Ottley Sword for 4-way Formation Skydiving competition, also known as the Excalibur, with a 15-point victory.

However, the opposition in 8-way was much stronger than probably expected. The FAI World Cup 2002 had not brought the two strongest 8-way opponents to Spain. The French 8-way team won the competition over different teams from the United States and Russia. Neither Golden Knights nor Majik Airspeed would compete in 2003, and Russia came with a much stronger lineup to Gap a year later.

France ended up in 3rd place, and the first French double-gold challenge had failed. National coach Jerome David tried again in 2008 and missed by one single point in 4-way this time, after winning the 8-way gold with the complete 4-way lineup in the 8-way team. Eventually he won all four Formation Skydiving events (4-way Open, 4-way Women, 8-way Open, VFS) in Menzelinsk 2010, where Mathieu Bernier became the one and only competitor in history with gold medals in both events at the same world meet. Jerome David retired as the national coach after the French FS Sweep, and Mathieu Bernier is currently trying to win double-gold in 8-way and 4-way Women in the same position as Jerome David.

---

FAI World Meet 2003			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-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	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	16	26	23	19	21	37	24	21	19	23	229	22.9
2	Golden Knights	US	17	24	22	19	18	35	22	18	19	20	214	21.4
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	13	24	21	19	18	36	19	16	19	21	206	20.6
4	Sebastian XL	UK	14	22	21	19	17	34	21	18	19	20	205	20.5
5	Sinapsi PD	IT	13	24	22	17	17	32	22	18	18	-	183	20.3
6	Endeavour	CH	13	21	19	15	17	29	21	17	16	-	168	18.7
7	NMPV	BE	15	19	19	16	15	29	19	16	16	-	164	18.2
8	EADS	DE	14	19	17	15	15	26	17	16	16	-	155	17.2
9	Wild Wind	RU	15	22	18	15	18	22	17	8	-	-	135	16.9
10	Phenix	SE	13	18	15	15	16	23	18	16	-	-	134	16.8
11	Spain	ES	12	17	14	15	17	23	16	14	-	-	128	16.0
12	Denmark	DK	6	19	14	12	14	23	17	15	-	-	120	15.0
13	Japan	JP	12	16	14	12	13	24	14	14	-	-	119	14.9
14	Netherlands	NL	11	16	14	13	13	21	15	11	-	-	114	14.3
15	Australia	AU	11	14	12	13	13	23	15	12	-	-	113	14.1
16	Bailey 5	ZA	11	10	14	11	13	19	15	13	-	-	106	13.3
16	Monkey Circus	AT	11	13	13	13	8	20	16	12	-	-	106	13.3
18	Canada	CA	11	15	13	11	12	18	12	12	-	-	104	13.0
19	Slovenia	SI	10	12	11	9	9	16	13	11	-	-	91	11.4
20	New Zealand	NZ	8	11	9	7	10	16	10	11	-	-	82	10.3
21	Skyservice	CZ	5	8	9	7	5	11	10	8	-	-	63	7.9
22	Israel	IL	1	3	2	4	4	7	3	4	-	-	28	3.5

---