posted Jan 19th, 2024 - The recent NSL News coverage of the medal count in 4-way Formation Skydiving competition since 1985 pointed out that all 20 sets of gold and silver medals went either to the national teams from the United States, France or Belgium, with only two exceptions. Canada won 4-way silver in 1985, Russia in 1989.

Any other medal winning teams had to settle with bronze for 3rd places. There was even one world championship (1989) where the U.S. team ended up in 3rd place. France finished 3rd four times (1985-2012-2016-2018), HayaBusa once for Belgium in 2008. A total of 11 countries have won the 20 bronze medals since 1985, with France as the leader in the bronze medal count, followed by Norway (1999-2001-2003), Italy (1991-2006), Denmark (1993-1995), Russia (2004-2010), Qatar (2021-2022), Austria (1987), United States (1989), South Africa (1997), Belgium (2008), Canada (2014).

For the national teams from Russia, Qatar, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Austria and South Africa, these bronze medals were always the only ones respectively available for them behind the 4-way powerhouses from the United States, France and Belgium, who have always been aiming only at the top spots. The 3rd places were usually not a great accomplishment for their higher expectations and the previous success. There was another exception in the medal count. Two of the bronze medal winners from South Africa in 1997 (DeLand Equanimity) followed up with 4-way gold medals for the U.S. delegation seven years later. Gary Smith and Solly Williams had moved to Florida and won the world championship title with DeLand Majik in 2004. Gary Smith even added another gold medal with DeLand Fire in 2006.

Norway in 4-way Open at FAI World Championships since 1985

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United States and France are far ahead of all other countries in the total 4-way Open Class medal count, the U.S. teams with 20 sets of medals at 20 world championships, France with 17 in the same time period between 1985 and 2022. Belgium is in 3rd place with seven Top 3 placements, all by NMP PCH HayaBusa, and no other country is anywhere close.

The leaders of the rest of the best behind United States, France and Belgium are Russia and Norway with three sets of FAI medals each. Russia has the advantage due to the silver medals of 1989, while Norway's three sets of bronze medals were all collected consecutively by the DeLand Norgies in 1999, 2001 and 2003.

The DeLand Norgies won the three sets of bronze medals with the same lineup, which is still active, and they join national championships for reunion events quite regularly. They were even close to tie the Russian record in 2001 when they finished only eight points behind Airspeed Vertical's 4-way world champions and six points behind France. However, the DeLand Norgies are still in 3rd place of the medal count behind United States, France and Belgium, even though the Qatar Tigers could catch up with a new medal position at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2024. It's a tough situation for the Tigers though, who have to outscore one of the three current world leaders from the same three countries, Arizona Airspeed, France or NMP PCH HayaBusa. Russia is currently not able to add any medals to their collection due to the exclusion from the FAI/ISC events.

FAI World Championship 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		8,19,24	A,L,22,H	E,10,D,11	21,6,4	B,18,C,14	G,5,20	2,1,16	M,K,12,9	15,23,P	O,17,Q,N	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	25	21	19	20	20	20	23	17	30	214	21.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	19	20	20	18	21	21	19	23	20	31	212	21.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	19	22	20	18	19	19	19	21	18	31	206	20.6
4	Sebastian XL	UK	17	22	20	17	18	19	19	21	18	28	199	19.9
5	Endeavour	CH	14	17	15	14	14	16	15	17	13	26	161	16.1
6	Sinapsi PD	IT	12	13	17	15	15	15	14	19	15	24	159	15.9
7	Germany	DE	13	13	15	15	16	15	14	18	13	-	132	14.7
8	Russia	RU	13	17	14	13	14	14	16	15	13	-	129	14.3
8	Belgium	BE	14	14	14	13	14	14	15	17	14	-	129	14.3
10	Japan	JP	14	14	15	14	16	13	11	17	12	-	126	14.0

Norway has not only been well known in the 4-way world because of the extraordinary accomplishments of the DeLand Norgies between 1998 and 2003. The records of participation at outdoor world championships is also showing a consistent presence of Norwegian 4-way Open Class teams between 1985 and 2010.

Arcteryx Arcteryx became the next Norwegian national team in 4-way Open after the DeLand Norgies and made it straight into the Top 10 with the 7th place in Rijeka 2004. Arcteryx moved up to the 5th place, ahead of NMP PCH HayaBusa, in Gera 2006, and to the 5th place two years later in Maubeuge 2008. The 22.5 average in France was the highest performance level in Norwegian 4-way history.

Arcteryx did not continue after their peak performance in 2008, and Norway disappeared from 4-way Open Class leaderboards at outdoor world championships after the 14th place in Menzelinsk 2010. After missing representation at the events for a whole decade between 2012 and 2021, DeLand Norgies member Carl-Erik Tuv had enough of it and launched a 4-way project to bring back Norway into the international 4-way community. Result of his efforts was the new national team in 4-way Open, Agera, and a Top 10 position in Eloy 2022. Carl-Erik Tuv and his 4-way project also created a new and very promising Norwegian team in 4-way Women, Thyra, who placed 4th at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving on home turf at Skydive Voss in Norway. Agera plan to improve their Top 10 position this year, and Thyra are probably aiming at a medal position in 4-way Women. Norway is back on FAI leaderboards.

FAI World Championship 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		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
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	28	30	22	16	28	20	27	17	188	23.5
5	Arcteryx	NO	27	29	21	17	25	21	26	14	180	22.5
6	Evolution	CA	25	27	22	17	24	18	26	16	175	21.9
7	Spin Team	IT	23	21	16	13	21	16	21	-	131	18.7
8	Dynamic Fource	NL	22	20	16	12	21	16	22	-	129	18.4
9	VIVA	CH	19	23	17	13	21	15	18	-	126	18.0
10	FSC Eisenach	DE	21	17	14	13	21	15	21	-	122	17.4