posted Apr 8th, 2021 - It is not easy to comprehend that the last international FAI event in Formation Skydiving competition was the FAI Outdoor World Cup in October 2019. A year and a half have gone by, and it will be almost two years before the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 is scheduled to bring the national teams of each country back together at the same place and the same time in August.

The same event was also the last outdoor competition for the British national teams in 4-way Open (Chimera) and 4-way Women (NFTO). The British 8-way team Groomed competed at Skydive Arizona, as well. None of the British competitors knew by then that there was a long break coming before the next outdoor event would be possible.

NFTO still competed at the Wind Games after the outdoor world cup, together with 20 other 4-way teams. Then it was over for all British teams, whether with indoor or outdoor training and competition.

NFTO finished as the best 4-way Women team at the Wind Games, where France was represented by Nephtys Weembi. The French national outdoor team, Aerodyne Weembi Girls, had won the 4-way Women competition at the outdoor world cup by 16 points (209 - 193).

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FAI World Cup 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		13,11,16	P,22,4	O,7,21	9,20,G	18,15,L	K,10,3	6,14,C	1,M,A,17	F,D,Q,8	2,5,E	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	17	19	25	20	20	19	20	23	25	21	209	20.9
2	NFTO	UK	17	17	23	19	17	17	19	21	23	20	193	19.3
3	Phoenix XP	US	13	13	17	14	13	12	14	17	18	14	145	14.5
4	Skynamite	DE	13	12	18	16	11	13	13	15	16	16	143	14.3
5	SNE Fly Girls	US	11	11	15	14	11	12	13	14	16	12	129	12.9
6	Victorious Secret	US	9	11	14	10	11	11	12	16	14	14	122	12.2
7	Alola	UK	9	10	13	10	9	9	9	12	16	11	108	10.8

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France and NFTO at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019

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The lineup of the French 4-way Women outdoor team has changed in the meantime, as the NSL News reported on 13 November 2020, and three team members (Christine Malnis, Sophia Pecout, Gaelle Giesen) train mostly in 8-way. The French 8-way team is on top of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud leaderboard after Round 4.

The change in the French lineup and the lack of 4-way training could have made it easier for NFTO to move closer to the outdoor top spot in 4-way Women. However, there was no more training possible for NFTO when the corona virus crisis caused the restrictions in Europe.

The situation was the same for the British national team in 4-way Open, Chimera. Their 4-way activities came to an end shortly after traveling to the United States for the outdoor world cup in October 2019. The long break was eventually over at the beginning of this month when Chimera was back in freefall on their home turf at Skydive Langar.

Team member Laura Hampton said that Chimera tried to keep connected and in shape as good as possible throughout the down-time: "We haven't been able to train much at all over the past 12 months but what we have done is to stay fit through lots of running, weights, cycling, hiking, yoga and the like. When allowed, we have run together, which has been a wonderful way to stay in touch, and we have also done things like virtual escape rooms and lots of quizzes and Zoom meet ups to keep us in touch with one another."

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FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		13,11,16		P,22,4		O,7,21		9,20,G		18,15,L		K,10,3		6,14,C		1,M,A,17		F,D,Q,8		2,5,E		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	-1	22		28		29		21		21	-1	21	-2	29		31	-2	24	-2	246	24.6
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	19	-1	22		25		21	-2	20	-1	20		23		25		29	-1	24	-2	228	22.8
3	Airspeed Odyssey	US	14	-2	17	-2	22	-2	21	-2	18	-1	16	-3	21		23		26	-3	17	-2	195	19.5
4	Defiance	US	17		17		21	-1	22		16	-2	15	-2	21		20	-2	26		16	-2	191	19.1
5	Aerodyne Cypres Lille-Bondues	FR	15	-1	16		19		21		16	-1	17		18		22		25		21		190	19.0
6	Echochamber	SE	17		14	-3	22		20	-3	17		16	-1	19		20		23	-1	21		189	18.9
7	Chimera	UK	14	-1	16	-1	21		19	-1	17		16	-1	18	-1	22		26	-1	18	-1	187	18.7
8	Pro Team	FI	15	-1	18		20		17	-1	17		15		18		21		26		18	-1	185	18.5
9	Kinetix	AU	14	-1	17		19		19		15	-1	17		18		19		23	-1	16		177	17.7
10	China	CN	12	-1	17		19		17	-1	14	-1	13	-1	16		20		24		15	-1	167	16.7
11	Eros	UK	12	-2	16		20		18		15	-1	13	-2	12	-4	17	-1	22		16	-1	161	16.1
12	eX3MO	IT	13		13	-2	17	-2	13	-4	12	-1	14		13		16	-1	22	-2	14		147	14.7
13	Pajama Pumas	UK	10	-2	12		17		14	-1	13		12		15		16		15	-2	13		137	13.7

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Chimera at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019

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Chimera have also been giving team-time to the skydiving community through online events, such as Chimera's "FS1 to the Podium" online event last year and by organizing the Zoogie (Boogie over Zoom) event for Skydive Langar earlier this year.

The British national team in 4-way Open also invested time and money into getting the equipment ready for the comeback and restart action: "We all have our gorgeous UPT rigs now, and we're so thrilled with them! We were able to jump them all together for the first time last weekend. Getting back in the sky together last weekend was just wonderful. We've really missed each other, and while it's fun to do quizzes or go for runs, nothing compares to the absolute joy of jumping together! We were really pleased to find that the fitness work and visualizing we've been doing has paid off too, and we felt really comfortable jumping."

Chimera continue with their preparations for the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 from here on forward. They are hoping to travel to the United States once again and train with coach Niklas Hemlin this summer and before the world meet. Team plans include Niklas Hemlin with remote coaching at some training camps at Skydive Langar. Chimera are still aiming at the national 4-way top spot that NFTO won last time in August 2019:

"We're feeling good, strong and ready to make our play for the top spot on the podium. We hope travel regulations and the Covid situation will be resolved to allow us to train, but we also recognize that this pandemic is bigger than us and that safety and health come first. We really hope everyone is keeping well and we're so excited to get back to normality when possible."