posted Feb 1st, 2023 - The NSL News introduced the new Paraclete XP8 lineup with the update on 2 December 2022. Three Golden Knights (Andrew Starr, Jeshua Stahler, Mike Connors) have replaced Michelle Karamon, Craig Girard and Brian Krause for the next two years.

Goal of the new lineup is to defend the FAI World Championship gold medals successfully in Israel 2024 that the previous XP8 lineup won two consecutive times, in Tanay 2021 and in Eloy 2024.

Matt Davidson, Drew Starr and Jesse Stahler will also try to win more of their own 8-way gold medals that they won for the Golden Knights consecutively between 2012 and 2018. The new lineup will be on the way to win the 7th consecutive 8-way gold medals for the U.S. delegation at outdoor world championships, which would be very close to the record number of eight between 1985 and 1999.

The NSL News also pointed out on 18 March 2022 how Matt Davidson and Craig Girard were on the way to win their 6th FAI World Championship gold medals in 8-way together when Craig Girard joined XP8 for the 2022 season. He took the position of the longest-standing 8-way world champion in the lineup, after winning his first FAI gold medal with the Golden Knights in 1989. Craig Girard is not in the newest XP8 lineup any longer, while Matt Davidson continues with the pursuit of his 7th 8-way gold medal and setting a unique new record.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2022			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		22,12,9	H,4,15	F,13,J,16	L,N,B,1	8,19,E	21,C,2	M,3,Q,D	O,11,G,18	K,5,17	10,7,A	Total	Avg
1	XP8	US	28	40	31	40	21	23	42	26	25	26	302	30.2
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	20	34	26	34	20	20	35	25	23	21	258	25.8
3	Prison 9	US	21	27	19	30	15	15	28	19	20	17	211	21.1

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	25	-1	20		20	-1	18	-1	18		19	-1	23		26	-1	16	-2	20	-2	205	20.5
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	21	-1	14	-2	16	-1	17		16		15	-1	19	-1	20	-1	14	-1	12	-4	164	16.4
3	Airbus	DE	18		14		14		13		4	-1	12	-2	16		16		12		14		133	13.3

Matt Davidson is now the new longest-standing 8-way world champion in the new XP8 lineup for the next two years, with his 8-way record numbers and Craig Girard's withdrawal from the XP8 lineup. However, he is still not the longest-standing FAI world champion in the lineup.

Kirk Verner became the first 4-way world champion of the current lineup, as a member of the original Arizona Airspeed lineup in 1995. Craig Girard already had three 8-way gold medals in his collection (1989 - 1991 - 1993) when Kirk Verner won his first 4-way gold medal two years later.

In fact, Kirk Verner has now collected just as many world championship outdoor gold medals as Matt Davidson, and they will now pursue their 7th FAI title together in two years.

Kirk Verner's collection is a combination of 4-way and 8-way titles without any time with the Golden Knights, where Craig Girard (3) and Matt Davidson (4) both won some of their 8-way gold medals. Kirk Verner won all his FAI 4-way and 8-way gold medals with Arizona Airspeed and Paraclete XP8.

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NSL Live Talk with Jeana Billings and Kirk Verner - Paraclete XP8 training of the new lineup

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Kirk Verner had the same senior position for XP8 since he moved from Arizona to North Carolina and before Craig Girard joined the lineup for a year. He is the most experienced Formation Skydiving competitor in the 2023/2024 lineup with his combination of 4-way and 8-way titles.

New member Andrew Starr and his Golden Knights team mate Jesse Stahler are now adding their own world championship success and the experiences of the highest 8-way outdoor average level in history to the XP8 knowledge and expertise of the last five years.

That's the time period that Jeana Billings has spent with Paraclete's XP8 lineup, after joining the team in 2018, together with her former R2G and XPG4 team mate Michelle Karamon. She is not one of the junior members any longer, after Michelle Karamon, Craig Girard and Brian Krause left the team. Andrew Starr and Jesse Stahler brought their Golden Knights team mate Mike Connors with them when they joined the new XP8 lineup.

Kirk Verner and Jeana Billings took some extra time at the end of XP8's first indoor training camp on Monday to talk about the new lineup and the first experiences with the new blocks. They also continue with a very successful combination of couples in U.S. 4-way and 8-way teams (Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard, JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz, Michelle Karamon and Niklas Hemlin), which is probably content for a later NSL News story...