posted Oct 23rd, 2021 - It's time to switch focus in the direction of the biggest 4-way and 8-way competition in the world, which has already begun at Skydive Arizona. The USPA Nationals 2021 are back on the west coast of the United States, after two years on the east coast, first at Chicagoland Skydiving in 2018, followed by Skydive Paraclete XP in 2019.

The 4-way VFS teams are in the middle of their competition. As usual, SDC Core run away from the U.S. field of three teams, after winning the FAI world meet title over three other teams at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020. The top team on the VFS Advanced Class leaderboard, SDMW Shakedown, includes SDMW NEXT member Megan George, who will follow up soon with her 4-way Open Class lineup.

This year's USPA Nationals are once again the qualification event for the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2022, which will take place in Eloy, as well. The U.S. national championships did not take place in 2020, after Skydive City and USPA agreed to cancel the event due to the implications of the corona virus pandemic.

The USPA Nationals 2019 qualified the U.S. national teams for the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, and the U.S. Formation Skydiving delegation came back home from Russia with Airspeed XP8's gold medals in 8-way Open, SDC Rhythm XP's silver medals in 4-way Open, and SDC Core's VFS gold.

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USPA Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class		7,C,H,P		J,21,20		O,3,11		B,2,K,E		8,Q,10		15,D,F,12		N,L,M,14		6,1,9		A,18,13		G,4,5		17,16,22		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	45	-1	24		27		37		21		25		34		25	-1	26	-1	25	-4	-		289	28.9
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	41		22		21	-1	33		21		23		27		25		24		25		21	-1	262	26.2
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	40	-1	24		22	-2	32		19	-2	24		29		25		21	-2	26	-1	20	-2	262	26.2
4	Defiance	US	30	-1	21		15	-4	28		16		19		22	-3	21		18	-1	18	-1	-		208	20.8
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	US	26		19		19		24	-2	16	-1	17	-1	24		18	-1	19		19		-		201	20.1
6	Kinetix	AU	26		18		17		22		13	-1	17		18	-1	17		17		17		-		182	18.2
7	Lite XP	US	24	-1	17		17		22		15		17		20	-2	16	-1	14		17		-		179	17.9
8	No Name	US	22	-4	17		14		19	-2	12	-2	13		14	-3	15		14		16		-		156	15.6
9	Aviatrixx	US	21		14		13	-1	18	-1	12	-2	15		17	-1	14	-1	12		14		-		150	15.0
10	Perris Force	US	20		13	-1	14		18		11	-1	11		18	-1	13	-1	12		12	-1	-		142	14.2

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SDC Rhythm XP and Arizona Airspeed at the USPA Nationals 2019

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The audience will probably still remember the big upset at the USPA Nationals 2019, where SDC Rhythm XP forced Arizona Airspeed into an extra round and won the jump-off to make the team dream come true. Unfortunately, JaNette Lefkowitz could not get her world meet reward, and Christy Frikken replaced her in Tanay.

It is very unlikely that a similar upset could be possible at the upcoming national championships, even though SDC Rhythm XP is well prepared after training as much as possible for the world meet in August. The team announced earlier that the world meet lineup will compete in Eloy, before only Doug Barron continues with three new team members and a new videographer.

This year's situation at the USPA Nationals is somehow the opposite picture compared to the 2019 event, at least from the Airspeed perspective. This time, the current lineup has been training and competing together for two years, after only a few months of time with Matt Davidson before the USPA Nationals 2019. SDC Rhythm XP were in their 4th year with the same lineup at that time, and they were able to take advantage of the golden opportunity at Skydive Paraclete XP.

Christy Frikken joined Rhythm in May 2020, as the NSL News reported on 19 May 2020, and Airspeed had the head-start. The new Airspeed lineup has won all duels with SDC Rhythm XP ever since, even increasing the difference meet by meet.

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International 4-way FS Championships		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	J,B,A,D,C		22,20,16		10,18,3		E,1,O,N		H,Q,P,L,9		8,G,F,12		15,M,11		13,14,21		6,K,17		2,7,4		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	57	-1	20		19		32		49		23		22	-1	20	-1	28		23		293	29.3
2	SDC Rhythm XP	51	-1	20		18		28	-1	45		23		23		20		26		22	-1	276	27.6
3	Bullet	37	-2	13		14		21	-1	26	-1	14		16		14		17		14		186	18.6
4	XPG4	32	-2	13		13	-1	22		25	-4	17		15		14		16		16		183	18.3
5	Jerry and the Jets	25	-2	14		12		20		25		13	-2	14		15		17		15		170	17.0
6	SDC RhEvolution XP	22		8		8		15	-1	20		10	-2	14		12		15		13		137	13.7
7	Repeat Offenders	19		9		9		14		18		11		11		9		11		10	-1	121	12.1
8	Day 2	17	-4	8	-1	9		12	-2	17		11		10	-1	11		12		10		117	11.7

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Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP at the International 4-way FS Championships

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The last outdoor competition brought both teams together at Skydive Arizona's 4-Way FS Skydiving Championships in November 2020. Airspeed won with a new team record average (29.3) and by 17 points over the current Rhythm lineup. The scores were boosted by the Super Sequence in Round 1 though, where Rhythm fell six points behind. However, Airspeed gave away only one round due to a penalty.

Everything else but Arizona Airspeed winning back the USPA 4-way championship title would be a surprise this year. However, the farewell event for SDC Rhythm XP could generate additional energy, and Airspeed still have to defeat the silver medalist of the most recent world meet, where the still reigning U.S. 4-way champions finished with a team record average after the six rounds.

The road to challenging NMP PCH HayaBusa's 4-time world champions next year still goes only past SDC Rhythm XP.

Arizona Airspeed have the home advantage this time. SDC Rhythm XP were very familiar with their three training sites on the east coast (Skydive Chicago, Skydive Sebastian, Paraclete XP). Airspeed's new lineup compete at the team's main headquarters next week, and they would also have the same home advantage over NMP PCH HayaBusa next year. The world champions from Belgium will watch the 4-way Open Class competition very carefully while preparing for their CISM World Championship in Qatar.