posted Jan 23rd, 2022 - The NSL News continues with the topic of 4-way Women competition, where the most recent updates covered the change in the lineup of XPG4, the U.S. national team in this FAI/ISC category.

Any U.S. team in any of the three traditional Formation Skydiving events since 2001 (4-way Open, 4-way Women, 8-way) is naturally a medal contender at world meets and world cups, even though the U.S. delegation missed medals in 4-way Women by a hair and after a rules drama at the last two world meets in Australia 2018 and Tanay 2021. Elsinore Select was the third U.S. team missing the bronze medals after a jump-off with Russia in Germany 2006.

U.S. 4-way Women teams have won three sets of gold medals, three more sets for 2nd places, and bronze medals twice since the introduction of the event at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving in 2001.

France joined the new event with a 2-year delay and sent the first 4-way Women team to the world meet in Gap 2003, where they finished in 5th place. It was the only time in French 4-way Women history without medals in this category. France is in fact the most successful nation in 4-way Women with four sets of gold medals.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2003			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		1,11,12	M,J,E,10	K,16,6	13,14,5	D,22,4	9,C,Q,N	F,19,21	2,20,L	18,B,3	8,P,7	Total	Avg
1	V-Max	UK	11	19	15	15	14	28	17	15	16	15	165	16.5
2	Norgie Girls	NO	11	20	17	15	14	24	19	12	12	18	162	16.2
3	Synchronicity	US	9	19	14	14	12	22	17	14	16	16	153	15.3
4	Kewara	IT	11	15	14	14	14	22	16	14	13	15	148	14.8
5	France	FR	11	17	15	13	12	22	17	13	11	-	131	14.6
6	Chicas	DE	9	12	10	10	11	16	12	10	10	-	100	11.1
7	Belgium	BE	9	14	10	10	12	8	7	7	7	-	84	9.3
8	Finland	FI	7	7	9	8	8	12	7	9	8	-	75	8.3

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The French 4-way Women team of the last two years was expected to defend the gold medals of Australia 2018 successfully at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, and they were surprised and upset by a very strong Russian team, the Bubbles, who won the first 4-way gold medals for their country.

French national coach Mathieu Bernier now informed the NSL News that Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis, both 4-way Women world champions of 2014 and 2018, will neither continue with the French national team in 4-way Women nor in 8-way.

However, he said that he has already rebuilt the national team with returning members Pamela Lissajoux and Gaelle Giesen, plus two members of the Nephtys Weembi (Elise Poindron, Jessica Thebault), the still reigning 4-way Women indoor world champions of 2019.

Pamela Lissajoux was in the 4-way Women lineup who won FAI silver in Ottawa 2016, gold in Australia 2018 and silver again last year in Tanay. She did not train and compete in 8-way, where Mathieu Bernier took her slot. Gaelle Gisen was the 4-way Women alternate in Australia 2018 and joined the 4-way Women and 8-way lineups both in 2019.

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FAI Indoor World Meet 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		M,K,D,14		Q,4,5		P,E,9,15		3,N,G,2		6,1,8		F,12,11		13,22,J		H,L,B,18		O,20,A,17		21,7,19		Total	Avg
1	Nephtys Weembi	FR	34		27		35		25		23		25		23		33	-1	31		24		280	28.0
2	NFTO	UK	34		26	-1	34		28	-1	23		24		24		34		28	-1	23	-2	278	27.8
3	XPG4	US	34		26		33		24		21	-1	24		24		28	-4	25		23		262	26.2
4	Bubble Hubble	RU	29	-2	25	-2	33		24	-1	22		23		22		31		25		21	-2	255	25.5
5	China	CN	31	-3	26	-1	31		22	-2	23		24		22	-1	30	-3	22	-3	23	-2	254	25.4
6	Team X	SE	26		25		28	-1	24		20		22		23		28	-1	24		23		243	24.3
7	No Mercy	PL	29		22		25	-1	21		19		17	-1	21		23	-5	20	-1	22		219	21.9
8	Skynamite	DE	28	-1	20	-2	26		20		17	-1	17	-2	19		26		18	-2	19	-2	210	21.0
9	Voss Vind Girls	NO	27	-2	22		24	-1	18	-1	18		19		20		23	-1	19	-1	19		209	20.9

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Nephtys Weembi at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019 - Espoir Saumur Weembi at the French Outdoor Nationals 2021

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The complete new French 4-way Women lineup grew out of the B-teams in the past. Pamela Lissajoux and Gaelle Giesen both spent some time in the Espoir Saumur Weembi lineups before they were selected for the national 4-way Women team.

Elise Poindron and Jessica Thebault were team mates in the same B-team for outdoor training and competition, and they won the indoor world championship title in 2019 together with Claire Victoire De Fleurian and Clementine Le Bohec. Pamela Lissajoux substituted for Jessica Thebault at Weembi 2019 who was injured at that time.

National coach Mathieu Bernier said that the new French national team in 4-way Women will represent the country at indoor and outdoor competition both, and B-team videographer Matthieu Roux will be filming the team for outdoor training and competition.

It is almost exactly the lineup of the defending indoor world champions, Nephtys Wembi, who will try to defend the title in April in Charleroi, only with Gaelle Giesen replacing Clementine Le Bohec. The indoor training has begun, and the same lineup will then switch to outdoor training for the world meet in Eloy in October.