posted Dec 27th, 2023 - The recent NSL News coverage of the strongest 4-way countries in the world and the development of national teams' lineups continues with one missing major piece of the 4-way puzzle. France has been the strongest player shortly behind the United States since the current format in Formation Skydiving competition was introduced in 1985.

There are only four countries in the world who have never missed an outdoor world championship since 1985, and French 4-way Open Class teams have also won medals at each of the events, except in 2014, 2021 and 2022. Only the national 4-way teams of the United States have won medals at all 20 world championships.

France is still the co-leader in winning consecutive world championship titles, which reflects the dominance in a certain time period. The French lineup that initiated the French 4-way dominance between 1987 and 1993 (Philippe Schorno, Eric Fradet, Frank Mahut, Jerome Bunker, Patrick Passe on camera) started with a 3rd place in 1985 and won their second set of FAI gold medals after five years together in 1989.

The French TAG Team of 1985 - 1989 can probably be compared with the relevance for their country as the original Arizona Airspeed lineup. In fact, the 4-way dominance of the TAG Team was one of the main reasons for the original Airspeed members to get together and change the world's 4-way power structure.

Lineups of the French national teams in 4-way Open since 1985

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The different French lineup with two new members continued the dominance and added two more 4-way titles in 1991 and 1993, before Arizona Airspeed put an end to the series in 1995. Only NMP PCH HayaBusa have been able to copy the French dominance for the same time period with four sets of gold medals between 2014 and 2021.

The Belgian team has now been facing a similar situation as France had to after winning the 4th consecutive 4-way title in 1993. The new Airspeed lineup decided to stop the Belgian dominance and succeeded in 2022, with a good chance to keep it the way it is in 2024. However, the new French lineup have passed NMP PCH HayaBusa at each competition since the 25th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships in October 2022 and might become the new most serious challenger of Arizona Airspeed.

The French 4-way Open Class lineup of 1990 (Philippe Schorno, Eric Fradet, Jerome David, Patrick Saget, Jean Marc Champilou on camera) needed four years to add the two sets of consecutive 4-way gold medals to the French collection. Brothers Martial and Marin Ferre, Thierry Boitieux, Davide Moy, with Laurent Pechberty on camera, won the next world championship title for France after four years together in 1999. Marin Ferre, Davide Moy, Julian Losantos and Erwan Pouliquen, still with Laurent Pechberty on camera, did exactly the same in the next four years and won in 2003.

FAI World Championship 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	US	30	32	24	16	29	21	28	15	195	24.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	30	23	17	27	23	28	18	194	24.3
3	HayaBusa Defence	BE	27	33	23	17	27	22	25	17	191	23.9
Rank	8-way Open		17,P,4	H,13,7	6,M,1	9,22,C	16,J,8	K,F,G,18	O,Q,5,12	-	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	18	26	22	22	24	16	-	151	21.6
2	USA	US	18	18	26	21	22	19	16	-	140	20.0
3	Ex3mo	IT	20	16	22	17	18	18	15	-	126	18.0

The chart of the French 4-way lineups since 1985 is showing how each national coach followed the same successful strategy and continued with two reigning world champions and two new carefully selected members. This changed in 2007 when national coach Jerome David selected four members of the French 8-way team (Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier, Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollett) to train and competed in 4-way, too.

France won 8-way gold in 2008, and the new 4-way team missed the double-gold by one single point after a short meet with only eight of the scheduled ten rounds. However, they followed up with the next French 4-way gold medals two years later, and Mathieu Bernier became the one and only competitor in history who won 4-way Open and 8-way Open gold medals at the same event. Menzelinsk 2010 was the end of world championship titles in 4-way Open for France. Arizona Airspeed and NMP PCH HayaBusa took over the top spots, and national coach Mathieu Bernier is trying to change the situation with his new and very young lineup. Damien Gouriou, Alban Rumolo, Tom Mattoni and Mathieu Quizy are going into their 3rd year with team videographer David Ricard and plan to threaten Arizona Airspeed already at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2024.

The chart with the placements of the world's currently leading 4-way nations (United States, France, Belgium, Qatar) is showing the head start that U.S. and French teams had in team development since 1985. However, Belgium and Qatar have now established their consistent presence on the top of the leaderboards, and the competition might become even closer and more exciting.

Placement history at outdoor world championships of the current Top 4 teams since 1985

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