posted Aug 8th, 2023 - The NSL News covered the very first attempt of a 4-way team, or any 4-way competitor, to win an additional gold medal in 8-way at a world championship at the same time on July 6th. The upcoming FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 has brought the topic back to the surface a few times, as XPG4 and GKXP8 member Jeana Billings is the next Formation Skydiving competitor with this opportunity next year. The outdoor world cup in Norway is a very realistic test for the same situation in Israel 2024.

The story of the first attempt was related to the 4-way team of the Golden Knights who won the 8-way gold medals in Brazil in 1987 and placed 2nd behind France in 4-way. The next attempt was again launched by a U.S. team more than a decade later. It had a different background though, as it was based on a plan with the defined goal of winning gold medals in 4-way and in 8-way.

The Golden Knights in 1987 were an 8-way team, the event that the U.S. Army had mostly pursued in the competition history. The Golden Knights also trained a little bit in 4-way, and it happened that the 4-way lineup with team captain Andy Gerber was also the best one at the national championships of 1986. The Golden Knights 8-way team would travel to Brazil anyway, and the 4-way lineup did the best they could to challenge the French TAG team.

The situation was different in Australia 1999 when Arizona Airspeed won gold in 8-way and silver in 4-way. Craig Girard had left the Golden Knights and moved to Arizona with the mission of building a world-champion 8-way team.

FAI World Championship 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		9,24,A	O,M,2,Q	14,P,11	19,3,15	N,8,12	C,1,E,20	K,23,17	B,16,21	L,22,J,7	G,5,6	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	23	18	19	18	24	21	21	21	20	208	20.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	24	19	16	17	26	19	19	20	19	202	20.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	21	23	16	17	16	23	20	19	20	16	191	19.1
4	Sebastian XL	UK	21	23	16	17	17	23	18	17	20	18	190	19.0
5	Russia	RU	22	20	13	16	16	17	18	17	18	15	172	17.2
6	Australia	AU	20	21	15	15	14	19	17	17	15	16	169	16.9
7	Daedalus	DE	18	18	13	13	14	18	15	14	16	16	155	15.5
8	Italy	IT	19	16	11	14	9	20	16	13	14	-	132	14.7
9	Japan	JP	15	18	11	12	12	15	15	14	14	-	126	14.0
10	Spain	ES	12	18	12	13	13	15	11	15	16	-	125	13.9
11	Hungary	HU	15	18	13	11	12	15	14	12	11	-	121	13.4
12	Belgium	BE	15	17	10	13	11	14	12	12	15	-	119	13.2
13	Denmark	DK	14	16	10	11	12	17	12	13	13	-	118	13.1
14	J5	ZA	14	15	11	11	12	14	11	13	-	-	101	12.6
15	Switzerland	CH	9	14	11	10	11	13	13	14	-	-	95	11.9
16	Netherlands	NL	12	15	6	11	11	10	10	14	-	-	89	11.1
17	Monkey Circus	AT	13	7	9	11	10	15	9	12	-	-	86	10.8
18	New Zealand	NZ	12	11	6	7	9	11	10	9	-	-	75	9.4
19	Canada	CA	11	12	7	9	7	11	7	5	-	-	69	8.6
20	Israel	IL	10	13	8	4	9	11	6	7	-	-	68	8.5
21	Portugal	PT	10	10	6	5	8	8	8	8	-	-	63	7.9
22	Slovakia	SK	7	9	7	5	8	8	9	9	-	-	62	7.8
23	Thailand	TH	9	5	0	5	6	3	8	4	-	-	40	5.0
24	Zimbabwe	ZW	5	5	4	1	2	5	3	4	-	-	29	3.6
25	Cyprus	CY	5	5	2	2	2	6	3	0	-	-	25	3.1

Craig Girard found a perfect foundation for the 8-way project. The original Airspeed lineup (Kirk Verner, Jack Jefferies, Dan BC, Mark Kirkby) had completed their own mission by finally defeating the French 4-way teams twice. France was dominating the event between 1987 and 1993, and Arizona Airspeed interfered, first in 1995, and again in 1997.

The two consecutive world championship 4-way titles in 1995 and 1997 and the ongoing support by Skydive Arizona's owner Larry Hill encouraged the 4-way world champions to take on the mission impossible - winning gold medals in both events. They agreed with Craig Girard's plans to build the world-champion 8-way team and be a part of it.

The first step had been completed successfully at the USPA Nationals on home turf in Eloy 1998 where the new Airspeed 8-way team defeated the Golden Knights. The original 4-way lineup of 1995 won the 4-way qualification without serious opposition, and the next double-gold mission was in the making.

The main opponents would be a new French 4-way lineup, while the Airspeed 8-way team would be facing two strong 8-way opponents from France and Russia.

FAI World Championship 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		15,7,13	B,12,E,3	20,K,11	23,H,J	F,2,8	D,6,P,22	N,A,M,G,16	21,L,14	10,C,4	1,9,O	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	25	20	20	16	22	25	19	21	21	211	21.1
2	Russia	RU	20	23	20	23	14	19	26	19	22	23	209	20.9
3	Maubeuge	FR	15	21	22	23	13	21	26	19	20	20	200	20.0
4	Australia	AU	15	18	12	10	12	16	20	14	14	16	147	14.7
5	Japan	JP	12	12	11	11	11	12	14	13	10	13	119	11.9
6	Germany	DE	13	13	12	12	9	10	15	10	11	10	115	11.5
7	Great Britain	UK	11	10	10	9	9	10	14	12	10	-	95	10.6
8	Spain	ES	4	12	11	7	9	11	14	11	10	-	89	9.9
9	Belgium	BE	10	9	7	9	8	10	12	11	10	-	86	9.6
10	South Africa	ZA	7	7	10	9	5	12	9	10	11	-	80	8.9
11	Flying Dutchmen	NL	7	9	9	8	6	9	13	11	7	-	79	8.8
12	Austria	AT	7	7	5	6	5	7	9	10	-	-	56	7.0
13	Italy	IT	5	5	7	9	3	8	8	7	-	-	52	6.5

The two Airspeed teams were well prepared for the double-duties in Australia 1999. The original 4-way lineup was in the 6th year of 4-way training together and had won two sets of gold medals going into the competition in Australia. The 8-way lineup trained at least as much as the 4-way team did, and the combined and well coordinated preparations were still not enough to accomplish the main goal of two sets of gold medals.

The new Airspeed 8-way team won by two points over Russia, while France won the 4-way competition by six points over Airspeed. A new Airspeed 4-way/8-way combination tried the same two years later and missed the double-gold again. The NSL News will follow up with more information of this second Airspeed attempt.

The mission impossible of the two gold medals in 4-way Open and 8-way Open at a world championship has still not been accomplished yet. Mathieu Bernier succeeded as a single competitor in Menzelinsk 2010. His three 4-way team mates were not in the French 8-way lineup that won the gold medals.

Jeana Billings will try to copy Mathieu Bernier's approach with the new combination of 8-way Open (GKXP8) and 4-way Women (XPG4) later this month, then again next year at the world championship.