posted Sep 18th, 2022 - The traditional Formation Skydiving competition events of the annual USPA Nationals always finish with 16-way and 10-way Speed. Despite the two days of rain and no competition rounds at all on Sunday and Monday, all Formation Skydiving events were still completed without a missing round.

4-way and 8-way Formation Skydiving are usually the most exciting events, as the Open Class competition includes the qualification for the world meets and world cups in the following year. 4-way fans will remember the extremely exciting finish in the 4-way Open competition of 2019, where SDC Rhythm XP forced Arizona Airspeed into an extra round and won the USPA gold medals after the jump-off. SDC Rhythm XP then represented the U.S. delegation at the FAI Tanay Mondial and won the FAI silver medals behind NMP PCH HayaBusa.

Last year's USPA Nationals did not include a similar drama as in 2019. Arizona Airspeed (4-way Open), Airspeed XP8 (8-way Open) and XPG4 (4-way Women) were not facing serious opposition for the top spots in their respective events. The situation was the same last week, and the same three teams won their next sets of USPA gold medals.

The 16-way and 10-way Speed events follow the competition in the FAI categories and are usually a welcome, relaxing and entertaining finish for the U.S. national teams, and most of the times they walk away with additional sets of USPA gold medals.

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USPA Nationals 2022		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	16-way	B,A,3	E,1	H,9	F,8	4,5	2,D	Total	Avg
1	XP16	14	18	15	7	7	5	66	11.0
2	More Than Adequate	11	13	8	4	7	6	49	8.2
3	Dallas Disturbance	11	11	5	5	7	6	45	7.0
4	Paradox	7	10	4	2	4	2	29	4.8
5	Fusion 16	4	5	3	2	2	2	18	3.0
6	Squeaky Wheel	2	4	2	0	2	1	11	1.8

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USPA Nationals 2022 - 16-way: XP16, Video Footage Courtesy of USPA/InTime

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This pattern of the past years continued when former and current XP8 members (Michelle Karamon, Jeana Billings, Andrew Happick, Matt Davidson, Kirk Verner, John D'Annunzio, Brian Krause, Niklas Hemlin, Josh Hall) joined forces with the complete new SDC Rhythm XP lineup (Doug Barron, Carl Kallgren, Chris Webb, Keith Conner) and Rhythm founder Steve Lefkowitz, the other two XPG4 members (Brenn Richards, Anna Brunner), Skydive Midwest NEXT member Greg Oldendick, and Airspeed videographer Brendan Haddon on the 16-way camera.

XP16 won the first four rounds with the usual authority of the past years, while this world-class lineup then allowed the other 16-way teams to keep up in the last two rounds. This situation may have indicated the upcoming major upset in the 10-way Speed competition.

The last event of the traditional USPA Formation Skydiving competition turned out to become the tightest battle with the only real surprise. The first three teams were separated by only ten seconds after all six rounds, which is not so unusual. Airspeed, Golden Knights, XP lineups have had similar 10-way Speed battles in the past. This year's difference is the fact that Airspeed's world-class lineup (Jeana Billings, Michelle Karamon, Kirk Verner, Niklas Hemlin, Joey Marshall, Steve Lefkowitz, Keith Conner, Josh Hall, Ben Liston, Rod Cruce, James Klinge, Brendan Haddon on camera) ended up in 3rd place, and two pickup teams took the two top spots.

It was a rude ending for the expected 10-way Speed favorites, and the other 10-way Speed competitors are hopeful for the coming events. They may have a chance, at least in this event...

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USPA Nationals 2022		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	10-way Speed
1	Sorta Adequate	22.11	24.34	17.49	28.65	20.69	18.71	131.99	22.00
2	Herding Katz	26.65	20.58	22.66	26.53	19.14	21.64	137.20	22.87
3	Airspeed 10	35.00	20.90	35.00	22.02	13.35	15.54	141.81	23.64
4	Who is Jesse King?	35.00	25.95	27.91	20.37	20.56	20.44	150.23	25.01
3	Bootieless	34.54	33.25	35.00	35.00	28.54	28.50	194.83	32.47

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USPA Nationals 2022: 10-way Speed - Top 3, Video Footage Courtesy of USPA/InTime

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