posted Feb 14th, 2022 - Craig Girard's recent move to take the last slot of the new XP8 lineup for the 2022 world meet season was covered comprehensively by the NSL News, first after team captain Kirk Verner's update on February 4th, then with a follow-up story on a few days later.

It will be impossible to go into all details of all stories in all areas where Craig Girard has left his mark in the 41 years that he has spent in the sport. The best overview of his career that the NSL News can offer is probably in his NSL Profile, even though it only covers his part in Formation Skydiving competition.

The NSL Profile is at least a good starting point, while it also opens the door to additional interesting and exciting details. One of those is his relationship with the Russian 8-way teams and their team members that began when he was still training and competing with the Golden Knights, and it reaches all the way into his current commitment to the XP8 2022 season.

Russian national 8-way teams have missed only one FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving (Maubeuge 2008) since joining the events with a 4th place in Mali Losinj 1985. They have won 8-way medals at all other world meets ever since.

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FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		16,P,13	1,Q,O,5	B,K,6,8	15,9,19	21,12,20	L,7,G,H	J,F,M,C,22	3,18,17	E,11,A,14	4,D,2	Total	Avg
1	Russia	RU	19	15	18	17	17	21	22	22	19	23	193	19.3
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	17	17	17	19	23	21	21	19	19	192	19.2
3	France	FR	16	17	16	15	19	20	20	18	18	20	179	17.9
4	Australia	AU	14	13	13	12	9	15	15	15	11	13	130	13.0
5	Netherlands	NL	14	12	14	14	10	11	13	14	11	13	126	12.6
6	Germany	DE	13	9	11	12	12	11	14	12	11	12	117	11.7
7	Great Britain	UK	13	11	5	12	12	11	13	10	11	-	98	10.9
8	Spain	ES	12	11	11	11	7	10	12	11	11	-	96	10.7
9	Brazil	BR	10	8	9	8	7	5	8	8	4	-	67	7.4
10	Canada	CA	8	2	7	6	6	5	6	7	5	-	52	5.8

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8-way medal winners at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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Craig Girard won his first three 8-way gold medals with the Golden Knights in 1989, 1991 and 1993 before he left the U.S. Army and started building Arizona Airspeed's 8-way team. He added two more 8-way gold medals with Airspeed to his collection in 1999 and 2004.

The Russian 8-way teams were Craig Girard's direct 8-way opponents, at all the events where he won his gold medal, first with the Golden Knights, then with Arizona Airspeed. The situation after his commitment with XP8 becomes very interesting, as some of the current Russian team members (Vasily Korotkov, Evgeny Staschenko, Vladimir Pavlenko, Sergey Yalpaev, Alexey Minaev) competed for Russia in 8-way at the earlier world meets, as well.

In fact, Vasily Korotkov, Evgeny Staschenko, Vladimir Pavlenko and Alexey Minaev were in the Russian 8-way lineup who won the first 8-way gold medals for Russia in Spain 2001. Vasily Korotkov, Alexey Minaev and Vladimir Pavlenko were still in the Russian 8-way lineup in 2003 and won their second gold medals. Current member Dmitriy Samohval was the alternate.

Craig Girard competed with Arizona Airspeed's 8-way team at both events, together with Kirk Verner, who is now his XP8 team mate. The table turned again in Croatia 2004 when Craig Girard and Kirk Verner won their last 8-way gold medals with Arizona Airspeed, this time over Dmitriy Samohval and current 4-way Women world champion Alena Chistova in the Russian 8-way lineup.

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FAI World Meet 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		B,P,C,18	9,15,16	K,11,19	E,F,7,5	A,J,21,12	6,4,10	17,Q,L,1	H,14,3	13,22,O	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	23	16	17	19	20	19	21	17	172	19.1
2	Maubeuge	FR	21	19	16	16	20	20	19	20	18	169	18.8
3	Evolution Pro	RU	18	20	17	16	18	19	20	20	19	167	18.6
4	Remscheid	DE	15	17	13	11	14	16	12	14	14	126	14.0
5	Ex3mo	IT	12	15	14	11	15	16	13	15	14	125	13.9
6	Australia	AU	10	12	9	9	9	9	10	11	9	88	9.8
7	South Africa	ZA	12	10	6	6	9	11	9	10	10	83	9.2
8	Austria	AT	10	10	9	9	8	10	9	9	8	82	9.1
9	Great Britain	UK	10	6	9	9	8	9	8	7	9	75	8.3
10	Japan	JP	9	6	9	6	5	9	7	5	7	63	7.0

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Neither Russia nor Arizona Airspeed have won 8-way gold medals ever since, until John D'Annunzio and Kirk Verner launched the Paraclete 8-way project, and AZXP8 won new gold medals at the FAI Tanay Mondial last year, with three Airspeed members in the lineup (Niklas Hemlin, Mikhail Markine, Chris Kuhlmann).

Craig Girard has not been an opponent for Russian 8-way teams again since 2004. The Golden Knights won the gold medals for the United States in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, with current XP8 member Matt Davidson in the lineup. France had won the 8-way gold medals in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

In fact, Craig Girard was on the other side between 2018 and 2021 when he was coaching the Russian 8-way team from Tanay, with his former opponents Vasily Korotkov, Evgeny Staschenko, Vladimir Pavlenko, Sergey Yalpaev and alternate Alexey Minaev in the lineup.

Tanay 8 were the strongest 8-way team in the world in 2019 before AZXP8 won the 8-way gold medals in Tanay last year. The same Russian 8-way lineup is back for the 2022 season, while Craig Girard and Kirk Verner have re-joined forces with XP8, as they had between 1999 and 2004. The next 8-way showdown between United States and Russia could become even more exciting than it was last year...

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		1,9,A		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	US	20		23		22	-1	23		31	-1	23		24		166	23.7
2	France National 8-way	FR	20		23		25		24		26	-1	25	-1	22	-1	165	23.6
3	Tanay 8	RU	18		21	-1	20		23		26		23		22		153	21.9
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	17		17		19		18		22		19	-1	19		131	18.7
5	Kazakhstan	KZ	5		9		6	-2	10		7	-1	12	-1	12		61	8.7
6	Belarus	BY	4	-1	6		4	-2	5	-2	7		8	-1	2	-1	36	5.1

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Airspeed XP8 - France - Tanay 8 at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020

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