posted Dec 28th, 2023 - The NSL News coverage of Arizona Airspeed's, NMP PCH HayaBusa's and Qatar's lineups over the years turned to the consistency of French national teams in 4-way Open, which completed the overview of the currently four strongest teams in the world. The last NSL News update on this topic, with the French lineups since 1985, pointed out that United States and France are two of the few nations that have never missed FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving.

Only U.S. 4-way teams have won medals at each of the 20 biannual events, and France left empty-handed only three times (2014, 2021, 2022). Belgium has taken the 3rd place in the 4-way Open Class medal count, which goes all to the credit of NMP PCH HayaBusa. The Belgian national team was formed in 2003 and has won all sets of FAI medals ever handed out to Belgium, beginning with the bronze medals in Maubeuge 2008.

This does not mean at all that Belgium was not a part of the 4-way world before the birth of NMP PCH HayaBusa. In fact, Belgium is also one of the four countries that have never missed a world championship since 1985, together with United States, France and the Netherlands. The overview of the placement history of the current Top 4 teams since 1985 on December 27th included Belgium's road from the 16th place in 1997 to the medal positions since 2008. Other Belgian 4-way teams had already made the world's Top 10 four times (1987, 1989, 1991, 1995) before the progression towards the medal positions began after the worst placement for a Belgian 4-way team (16th) in 1997.

Participation of all 4-way Open Class national teams since 1985

---

The new overview of the complete history of 4-way Open Class competition at FAI world championships since 1985 is showing the four countries which had national 4-way Open Class teams at all events, including the FAI Tanay Mondial. The event in August 2021 was the historic record low in participation, which was mostly caused by the impact and consequences of the corona virus crisis, including the cancellation of the originally scheduled date in 2020.

Even Russia did not have a 4-way team on home turf in August 2021 for a different reason, neither related to the pandemic nor to any political troubles. Members of the national 4-way team were seriously injured in a horrible and deadly plane crash just a few weeks before the rescheduled world championship, as the NSL News reported on 19 July 2021.

Russia had never missed a world championship since 1985 before the tragic accident in 2021, followed by the decision of the FAI Executive Board in March 2022 to "suspend the members of Russia and Belarus with immediate effect" from FAI/ISC events. Canada, Great Britain and Germany would also have a clean (green) 4-way Open Class sheet since 1985 without the impact of the corona virus crisis. The participation returned to the previous average numbers at the 25th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2022 in Eloy, even without Russia and Italy. The next event, the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2024 in North Carolina, may continue the comeback momentum.

4-way Open Class participation at outdoor world championships since 1985

---