posted Jun 12th, 2021 - It is a challenging task for a country's skydiving federation to select a complete delegation for FAI/ISC world championships and world cups in all events, and to make sure that the teams and competitors will represent the country at the respective event.

There are many more competitive skydiving disciplines at the major events, and the NSL News has been covering exclusively traditional Formation Skydiving competition (4-way Open, 8-way Open, 4-way Women), with a few random efforts to include 4-way VFS, as well.

The sport of skydiving competition has a vast majority of recreational athletes in most of the countries, even on the top level of the sport, and the skydiving federations don't have the authority to enforce participation at the major events. They rely on the agreement of teams and competitors to compete at the events, after they selected and sanctioned them at qualification events, mostly at national championships.

The skydiving federations and their supporting organizations can offer incentives for the teams to make the effort, which is mostly financial help for covering the expenses and participate at the major events. However, this financial help has a wide range between the different countries and begins with no help at all, ending with covering of all expenses and even additional financial support for training.

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Participation of U.S. 4-way Open teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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The most recent example for a team that did not agree with making the efforts to compete for the country's Formation Skydiving delegation is Germany's national 4-way champion team, Oceanside AtomiX, despite moderate financial support that the German skydiving federation (DFV) usually offers for the national teams at FAI/ISC events. DFV reacted quickly and found agreement of the runner-up, Airbus Illertissen, as the NSL News reported on May 24th.

The next case of a very different situation in the same world meet environment was the complete British Formation Skydiving delegation's cancellation of the participation at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, as the NSL News reported on June 11th.

The surprising update from Great Britain after the recent season opener of the United Kingdom Skydiving League demonstrates the opposite end of the same situation. Even a British team that would like to compete at the world meet would need sanctioning by the national skydiving federation (British Skydiving) and could not travel to Russia without it.

The challenging circumstances of an amateur sport on a very demanding athletic level is the reason why very few national skydiving federations can always send complete Formation Skydiving delegations to the major international events.

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Participation of U.S. 8-way Open teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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FAI World Meet 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		17,P,4	H,13,7	6,M,1	9,22,C	16,J,8	K,F,G,18	O,Q,5,12	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	18	26	22	22	24	16	151	21.6
2	USA	US	18	18	26	21	22	19	16	140	20.0
3	Ex3mo	IT	20	16	22	17	18	18	15	126	18.0
4	EADS	DE	21	14	20	15	16	14	14	114	16.3
5	Connextion	UK	15	12	15	13	14	13	12	94	13.4
6	Belgium	BE	14	11	16	11	14	14	12	92	13.1
7	South Africa	ZA	14	9	16	12	13	11	-	75	12.5
8	Spain	ES	13	6	13	10	13	13	-	68	11.3
9	Australia	AU	11	5	10	9	9	7	-	51	8.5

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In fact, there is only one nation with a completely flawless participation record in the history of Formation Skydiving competition since 1985 - the United States of America - even though the national teams in all three traditional categories are not always full-time athletes at all.

The British Formation Skydiving delegation had missed only one single event in Menzelinsk 2010 before the recent cancellation of the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, and the world meet in Russia was the most challenging event so far, as the NSL News reported on June 11th. The U.S. delegation made it to Russia in 2010 with all three national teams, even though none of them would bring home a set of gold medals.

It surely was not always easy for the U.S. delegation to select a team and encourage the competitors to make the trip. The situation at the FAI World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge, France, was even more challenging, and a more or less 8-way pickup team competed for the United States.

However, the United States Parachute Association (USPA) maintained the only flawless participation record in the history of Formation Skydiving competition in 2008 and in 2010, and a complete delegation has plans to travel to Russia this year (AZXP8, SDC Rhythm XP, Aviatrixx), as well. The flawless record would not be infringed, despite even more challenging circumstances this year.

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Participation of U.S. 4-way Women teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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