posted Aug 17th, 2021 - The battle between Bubbles (Russia) and France for the gold medals in 4-way Women at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 was not even as dramatic as the situation right behind the two top contenders, where Aviatrixx (United States) and No Mercy (Poland) were separated by their own two points after six rounds.

They competed for the bronze medals, as the British national team NFTO was not present after the complete British Formation Skydiving delegation had canceled the participation. It was already exciting enough to see how the Russian Bubbles upset the three reigning French 4-way Women world champions. It was still nothing compared to the drama that developed in the battle for the bronze medals.

Aviatrixx arrived in Tanay with the complete lineup after a rocky season, with an injury that kept Rhonda Wilcox on the ground for a while. Katrina Autry Shows had replaced her at the July meet of the Texas Skydiving League, the last test before the trip to Russia. However, Rhonda Wilcox recovered quickly enough and was back in her slot for the battle with No Mercy when Katrina Autry Shows could not travel.

The drama began when Aviatrixx lost a 7-point lead after Round 3 with a bad exit in Round 4. They carried the remaining 1-point advantage through Round 5 and added a point to the lead in Round 6, which turned out to be the end of the competition. It was not the end of the battle for the bronze medals though, which continued in the meeting rooms of judging and jury panels. Aviatrixx posted a statement that explained the situation of Round 5 and the implications in all details.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		Total	Avg
1	Bubbles	RU	21	-1	33	-3	18	-1	33	-3	27		18	-2	150	25.0
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	24		27	-4	18		34		24	-2	21		148	24.7
3	No Mercy	PL	15		20	-1	11	-1	20	-2	16		11		93	15.5
4	Aviatrixx	US	15		25		13		14		(16)		12	-1	(95)	(15.8)

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No Mercy (Poland) and Aviatrixx (United States) at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020

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It's been quite a week here in Siberia for sure! Those of you following scores probably have some questions about the zero on the board for Round 5. Here's the story.

After an uneventful climbout, right about the "set" of the count, our videographer Cory lost consciousness and left the airplane. After about 7 seconds, he regained consciousness and deployed his main parachute immediately, landing perfectly safely. He got checked out on site and in the hospital (ECG and CAT scan... yes, they observed he does have a brain ??) and he feels fine, although of course just a wee bit scared as are we all... the episode has been chalked up to a high blood pressure spike and he'll be following up with his doctor back home for sure.

Now for the judging entertainment. While there is video, it does not show the team's exit nor any points due to Cory facing away (other than a moment as we fell past him as he deployed). That was our last jump of the day. As we were at dinner with our formation skydiving team manager Jim Rees, he received communication from meet management that we could take a rejump. Um, YES PLEASE?! The next day we did the rejump (railed it ?? and received a score of 16. Later in the day, we were advised that the Polish delegation (which was one point behind us at the time) had protested our rejump as a violation of FS CR 2.15, which defines an NV (not visible) situation as follows:

FS CR 2.15: "NV: Formations, inters, or total separations not visible on screen due to meteorological conditions, or factors relating to the videographer's freefall video equipment that can not be controlled."

As the video failure was not due to the definition of meteorological conditions or video equipment factors, they are correct. But what we were told when we were notified of the protest was that the issue was a procedural error in which the chief judge referred the video to the video review panel (VRP) rather than the actual judging panel assessing the jump as an NV situation, and that the panel never should have been summoned based on FS CR 2.15. Never mind that the VRP decisions are final and not subject to review or protest per FS CR 4.5.7; the jury's decision was that the panel never should have been summoned in the first place so that panel's decision was irrelevant.

Obviously we issued a formal complaint, but the Polish delegation's protest was upheld and our score remains a zero for the round. All we can say is that this unprecedented situation will likely result in some further education for meet management for FS competitions and potentially clarification of certain rules, so hopefully this situation never repeats for anyone else (for multiple reasons).

It is quite a difficult thing to be awarded that rejump, get a score, and then have it taken away. We are now out of the medals (we were in bronze position at the time) with little expectation of good enough weather to jump any more rounds today, the last day of our event. Although of course we haven't stopped hoping!

Oh, and we outscored the Polish team on the one round we have done since the rejump. Please help us give HUGE thanks to several members of Team USA for generously offering to help us with video or coach our fill-ins while also competing in their own events or managing part of the delegation. Matt Leonard, Jason Brigmon, Travis Mills, Chris Wagner, Justin Wageman, Elliott Byrd, we appreciate you so much! It's been a great meet for us in many ways, not least of which is having Rhonda back at inside center with only 8 total jumps since her knee surgery before Round 1, and she's absolutely killing it. It's like she never left! Katrina became ill right before the trip and was unable to make it. To say it's been a roller-coaster ride is quite an understatement.

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Aviatrixx with Katrina Autry Shows at the Texas Skydiving League competition in July

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