posted Mar 8th, 2021 - It is not new that the Golden Knights Gold team win either outdoor or indoor bronze medals at U.S. national championships. In fact, this year's 3rd place at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021 was the 4th consecutive time for the Gold team in this finishing position.

The last USPA outdoor bronze medals were taken by Jennifer and Matt Davidson, Kurt Isenbarger, Sean Sweeney, with Scott Janise on camera in 2016 and 2017, the same lineup who won the indoor championship at Paraclete XP in 2016.

The indoor bronze medal lineup was the same in 2018 and 2019 (Jennifer and Matt Davidson, Drew Starr, Sean Sweeney). Matt Davidson then left the U.S. Army and joined Arizona Airspeed for a few months in 2019 before going through his hip replacement surgery and coming back with Airspeed XP8.

Jennifer Davidson and Drew Starr continued with the U.S. Army's Gold team and welcomed back Jesse Stahler in 2020, who was in the gold-medal 4-way lineup of 2016. They won the next set of bronze medals with Nik Grimm, who was recruited for the Golden Knights 8-way team after the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia.

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Paraclete XP Indoor 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	19,13,O		21,12,16		A,B,D,11		4,15,C		17,3,E		Q,G,18,22		6,7,14		9,10,2		1,P,20		L,K,H,5		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	28		27		42	-2	29		34		29		28		26	-1	29		43	-2	315	31.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	25	-2	25		37	-2	27		32		29		26	-1	27		25	-1	41	-1	294	29.4
3	Golden Knights Gold	27		23		40		26	-4	28		19		25		23		26		35		272	27.2
4	XP4	25		19		34		23		28		20	-3	21	-1	21		23		32		246	24.6
5	XPG4	22		20		29		21		23		20	-1	23		19		20	-1	30		227	22.7
6	Skydive Midwest NEXT	21	-3	16	-2	30	-2	22		23		20	-1	20	-1	19	-1	21		28	-1	220	22.0
7	Lightspeed	20		18		28		21		23		19		20		16		19		28		212	21.2
8	Air Force OBYC	18		17		27		17		21		17		19		15		18		19		188	18.8
9	Aviatrixx	18		17		23		15		19		17		16		17		16		25		183	18.3
10	Vega XP	15		17		24		14		18		17		17		16		18		22		178	17.8
11	Golden Knights Black	17	-1	16	-1	22	-2	16		17		16		18	-1	16		16	-1	20	-1	174	17.4

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Golden Knights Gold and Golden Knights Black at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021

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Jennifer Davidson, Drew Starr and Jesse Stahler then recruited a new team mate from the 8-way lineup, as the NSL News reported in the preview of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship on February 25th.

David Flynn now launched his own Golden Knights Gold career with the next set of 4-way bronze medals for the U.S. Army team.

The new lineup was well trained in 4-way and had worked several times with coach Niklas Hemlin. Team captain Drew Starr had pointed out at previous interviews that 4-way skills training was a significant part of his plan to prepare the 8-way team for top-level 8-way performance.

The 4-way training for the Gold lineup turned out to show impressive results. The 27.2 average is the second-highest one in the Golden Knights records and two average-points better than last year. Only the 2016 lineup scored higher when they won the Paraclete XP event with a 28.2 average.

The Gold team actually kept up with SDC Rhythm XP throughout the first three rounds this year, and before they were thrown back after four point deductions in Round 4.

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Paraclete XP Indoor 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	D,B,22,E		K,17,11		C,3,P,5		4,Q,18		16,9,A		2,7,8		G,15,1		F,21,N,H		6,J,12		19,M,13		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	36		30		35		37		33		22		39		30		29		24		315	31.5
2	Golden Knights	28		26		33		33		27	-1	21		33	-1	27		28	-1	24		280	28.0
3	Rhythm 8	19	-2	18		22	-1	26		18		14		23	-2	19		17		14		190	19.0
4	QRF 1	18		16		23		24		17		14		23		18		17		12		182	18.2
5	Token Male	14		17		19		18		16		13		21		18		16		14		166	16.6
6	Jhabberlution	13		14		16		18		15		11		16		10		15		11		139	13.9

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Golden Knights at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021

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The Golden Knights progression in 8-way was just as impressive as for the 4-way Gold team. The new lineup, with Andy Sippl replacing Jon Clavenger, finished more than two average-points higher (28.0 - 25.9) than last year. The new lineup, following the 8-way world champions of 2018, had started from a 21.3 average level at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019.

The U.s Army's 8-way team, who are still the reigning outdoor world champions, had finished 83 points behind XP8 at the restart with the new lineup in February 2019. The difference was now down to 35 points two years later, behind XP8's still reigning indoor world champions of 2019.

It is no secret that the Golden Knights are aiming at taking back the 8-way top spot in the United States and defending the U.S. 8-way gold medal positions in the future. Airspeed XP8 now have a domestic team that begins to put serious pressure on them.

The first outdoor duel this year is coming up very soon. Golden Knights and Airspeed XP8 both compete at the 8-way competition of the Shamrock Showdown 2021. Registration for 4-way and 8-way teams is still open...