posted Apr 3rd, 2022 - The NSL News recently featured the competition for the 4-way Open Class bronze medals at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2022. The Golden Knights were a part of this 4-team battle, and they were in a very strong position after the opening rounds. In fact, the U.S. Army team was in 2nd place through Round 4, two points ahead of XPG4.

It would be no surprise to see the Golden Knights in one of the medal positions, whether it is in 4-way or in 8-way at U.S. indoor or outdoor championships. It was the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2014 where the Golden Knights did not finish in a 4-way medal position last time.

The Golden Knights still won the 8-way indoor competition the same year before bringing back home the 8-way gold medals from the outdoor world meet in Prostejov, as well. The U.S. Army's 8-way lineup won all 8-way indoor competitions since 2011, before Paraclete XP8 took over at the Indoor Championship 2019.

The latest 4-way lineup of the Golden Knights that the NSL News introduced briefly in the same update were not able to hold the medal position against the strong opponents and ended up in 6th place.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2022		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	F,9,4	G,8,A,C	22,10,J	11,D,6	N,3,M,H	20,P,Q,L	12,17,B	18,2,13	E,7,14	5,19,K	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	39	37	26	29	40	37	31	25	33	33	330	33.0
2	XPG4	30	25	16	24	32	28	20	20	26	25	246	24.6
3	Skydive Midwest NEXT	27	27	18	24	32	29	18	20	24	22	241	24.1
4	Bobba Fat XP	28	24	19	23	31	24	21	19	25	23	237	23.7
5	SDC Rhythm XP	27	27	19	21	28	28	20	19	27	20	236	23.6
6	Golden Knights	33	27	16	21	26	29	22	18	21	19	232	23.2
7	Lucky Chris Take 2	24	22	15	18	22	21	14	15	19	18	188	18.8
8	Sloppy Seconds	23	17	10	16	18	15	14	12	18	15	158	15.8
9	Three Men and a Katie	19	18	13	14	17	16	14	12	18	15	156	15.6
10	Platinum XP	14	15	11	14	15	13	12	10	14	12	130	13.0

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Golden Knights at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2022

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The Golden Knights did not even compete in 8-way this year. They had still come back with a new lineup and big plans in 2020 and 2021, after losing the top spot to XP8 in 2019, and the progression was impressive and promising (21.3 in 2019 - 25.9 in 2020 - 28.0 in 2021).

There was more behind the absence of a Golden Knights 8-way team and missing a medal position in 4-way. Big changes in the U.S. Army's competition team have been going on, and the Paraclete XP Championship 2022 was indeed the last competition, as the NSL News mentioned in the same update.

Matt Davidson, 5-time world champion in 8-way with the Golden Knights (1997, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), now training and competing with the new Paraclete XP8 lineup, has a lot of insights after his long and successful time with the U.S. Army teams. He said that the current situation was explained in an internal statement that was given to the Golden Knight Alumni Association:

"This year, the US Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) Commanding General has deemed the Army's recruiting mission as a 'No Fail effort'. As such, direction from senior levels of leadership is that the Golden Knights will not pursue any mission which distracts from the singular focus of supporting the Army Accessions Enterprise. As of now, the Competition Section has been tasked with a change of mission: to pivot away from competing into a supporting role that assists recruiting NCO's (Non Commissioned Officers) across the nation to enhance their chances of mission success."

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FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		20,18,J	14,C,B,12	11,1,2	3,K,F,E	D,9,8	5,H,21	P,4,10	16,Q,M,15	A,17,22	7,N,6	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	22	21	23	30	16	18	24	31	22	17	224	22.4
2	Russia	RU	20	17	16	21	17	14	20	14	19	13	171	17.1
3	France	FR	16	15	17	19	14	14	17	19	11	13	155	15.5
4	Germany	DE	13	11	15	16	12	12	14	18	12	10	133	13.3
5	Australia	AU	15	14	14	15	12	11	13	12	12	9	127	12.7
6	Canada	CA	13	12	11	10	11	10	13	14	11	9	114	11.4
7	Great Britain	UK	10	11	11	12	8	7	11	11	7	-	88	9.8
8	Japan	JP	9	8	9	10	4	9	10	11	5	-	75	8.3
9	Netherlands	NL	7	8	9	9	5	4	9	12	8	-	71	7.9
10	Brazil	BR	8	9	4	5	7	7	7	7	7	-	61	6.8
11	Spain	ES	6	9	6	9	1	1	7	12	-	-	51	6.4
12	Austria	AT	6	6	7	0	5	5	7	7	-	-	43	5.4
13	Israel	IL	3	4	0	1	4	1	4	3	-	-	20	2.5

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One result of the changes is the withdrawal of the Golden Knights teams from Formation Skydiving training and competition, and the scores of the Golden Knights 4-way team at the Paraclete XP Indoor championship were the last ones for an undefined time period.

Matt Davidson is not in agreement with the changes at all. His wife Jennifer Davidson was also a member of the last 8-way and 4-way teams, and she will have to look for a different direction in her career with the U.S. Army. Golden Knights 8-way team captain Andrew Starr was coaching the 4-way team at the indoor championships without flying in the chamber himself.

Matt Davidson thinks that the current command's outlook for the Golden Knights is short-sighted in many ways and is "a far cry from the powerfully inspiring vision which General Stilwell put into action 63 years ago." He sees great benefits of the Golden Knights competition mission: "Throughout this great land and the entire family of nations across the globe, members of the Golden Knights serve as goodwill ambassadors for not only the Army, but also for the United States of America. Through their superior performances, conduct and accomplishments, the Golden Knights Competition Section has been a conduit for extending goodwill and friendship through sport on behalf of the United States and the US Army, compounding its positive effects in ways which only the Competition Team can."

The USPA Nationals 2022 will probably be the first event without a team of the Golden Knights in 4-way or 8-way in action...