posted Feb 5th, 2024 - The aftermath of the Czech Indoor Open 2024 included attention to 4-way teams from Slovakia on January 28th who have participated regularly at meets of the Czech Tunnel League. Two Slovakian teams (Das Nächste Fensterand Quattro Formaggi) competed at the Czech national indoor championship, as the NSL News pointed out.

The Skydive University Slovakia 4-way team was the first one to take advantage of the regular competition opportunities that Jan Klapka was offering after launching the Czech part of the World Tunnel League and joining the Indoor Cloud League a few years later. His ICL team had completed the first two years of Indoor Cloud League competition at the Hurricane Factory in Prague when the Skydive University Slovakia 4-way team signed up for their first 10-round meet in April 2016.

Peter Novak, coach of Slovakia's 4-way Junior team SDU GenZ, was one of the original Skydive University team members. Slovakia's strongest team in 4-way Open never attended any of the FAI/ISC outdoor events, while they represented their country indoors at a few World Challenges in Bedford and finally at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019 at Weembi Lille. Peter Novak then guided SDU GenZ (4-way Junior) through the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship on home turf at the Hurricane Factory Tatralandia in April 2023.

FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		13,Q,D,9	5,K,F,12	1,14,22	H,M,11,7	A,E,3,G	15,18,3	20,L,23	O,19,4	17,10,J	6,C,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	20	18	23	27	15	20	16	21	24	210	21.0
2	France	FR	25	19	17	22	25	16	20	21	20	21	206	20.6
3	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	25	20	16	20	20	15	17	20	21	19	193	19.3
4	Russia	RU	24	18	17	17	23	14	12	19	17	19	180	18.0
5	Sebastian XL	UK	24	17	14	21	19	13	16	19	15	18	176	17.6
6	DeLand Norgies	NO	20	14	12	18	20	12	14	17	16	18	161	16.1
7	Switzerland	CH	21	15	13	17	18	13	14	16	16	16	159	15.9
8	Australia	AU	17	17	14	17	19	10	14	17	17	16	158	15.8
9	Spain	ES	21	16	13	13	19	13	14	16	18	14	157	15.7
10	Daedalus	DE	19	14	13	17	20	12	12	16	15	17	155	15.5
11	Velox	SE	19	11	12	16	18	11	13	17	16	-	133	14.8
12	Japan	JP	19	13	11	15	19	11	11	17	14	-	130	14.4
13	Italy	IT	19	11	11	15	18	11	12	14	12	-	123	13.7
14	Monkey Circus	AT	19	13	11	8	16	11	14	17	13	-	122	13.6
14	Finland	FI	19	12	13	13	16	12	10	16	11	-	122	13.6
16	Belgium	BE	18	13	12	14	14	10	13	14	11	-	119	13.2
17	Hungary	HU	15	12	11	14	17	9	10	14	15	-	117	13.0
18	Canada	CA	18	12	12	10	15	9	7	15	13	-	111	12.3
19	Netherlands	NL	17	11	10	9	15	9	12	12	13	-	108	12.0
20	Croatia	HR	17	11	10	11	15	9	9	9	-	-	91	11.4
21	Brazil	BR	14	8	11	14	11	9	9	13	-	-	89	11.1
22	Luxemburg	LU	12	10	10	11	11	8	10	13	-	-	85	10.6
23	Mexico	MX	13	9	9	11	12	8	10	12	-	-	84	10.5
24	ProDytter	DK	15	12	0	10	13	6	11	12	-	-	79	9.9
25	Czech Republic	CZ	14	6	9	7	12	9	9	12	-	-	78	9.8
26	New Zealand	NZ	12	8	8	9	11	8	8	10	-	-	74	9.3
27	Lithuania	LT	10	4	6	9	9	5	9	9	-	-	61	7.6
28	Slovakia	SK	8	9	7	5	10	6	7	8	-	-	60	7.5
29	Ireland	IE	7	7	9	7	5	7	8	9	-	-	59	7.4
30	Israel	IL	10	8	9	4	9	3	5	9	-	-	57	7.1
31	Portugal	PT	12	4	7	3	9	6	8	7	-	-	56	7.0
32	Poland	PL	6	6	3	3	9	6	2	7	-	-	42	5.3
33	China	CN	8	2	5	5	3	2	6	4	-	-	35	4.4
34	Venezuela	VE	6	0	5	6	4	1	6	6	-	-	34	4.3
35	Turkey	TR	6	7	3	4	0	2	6	3	-	-	31	3.9
36	Indonesia	ID	0	5	7	7	2	0	4	2	-	-	27	3.4
37	Cyprus	CY	2	0	0	1	2	3	4	2	-	-	14	1.8
38	Korea	KR	3	0	0	0	1	1	3	2	-	-	10	1.3

Neither Czech Republic nor Slovakia had their own national teams until the world championship in Turkey 1997. The two countries were a part of Czechoslovakia until 1992 when they peacefully split into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Teams from Czechoslovakia competed at the outdoor world championships in 1985, 1989 and 1991 before 4-way teams from Czech Republic and Slovakia both posted their first scores on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard in 1997. Only Slovakia was back with a 4-way team two years later in Australia 1999, then again together with a Czech team in Spain 2001.

Only Czech team Sky Service/Lize was present in Gap 2003, with HF Chameleons and Skywalkers Junior member Filip Lukavec's father Jan Lukavec in the lineup, then again in Gera 2006. Slovakia had a team at the world championship two years later in Maubeuge 2008.

Lize with Jan Lukavec were back for the Czech Republic in Dubai 2012, HF Flying Circus in Eloy 2022, while Slovakia has been in outdoor hibernation since 2008. Skydive University Slovakia have not returned to indoor competition at the Czech Tunnel League since the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019, even though original team member Peter Novak is still actively involved in 4-way training and competition. Other Slovakian 4-way teams instead have recently used the same opportunities for competition practice.

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4-way Open Class participation of teams from Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic and Slovakia at FAI World Championships since 1985

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4-way Women team Kiss My Grips participated in three meets of the Czech Tunnel League in 2023 to prepare for the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving on their home turf. Then they continued at all indoor meets since the beginning of the Czech indoor winter season. Das Nächste Fenster has been the next 4-way team from Slovakia on each of the Czech indoor leaderboards since November 2023.Das Nächste Fenster features two families, brothers Richard and Boris Kolozsi, wife and husband Ivica and Jozef Just. Richard Kolozsi is actually one of the original Skydive University members, former team mate of Peter Novak. Ivica Just has also been training and competing with Kiss My Grips since January 2023, and both teams have been on the same three AAA Class leaderboards between November 2023 and January 2024.

Jozef Just started with AFF training in 2017 and has a total of 1400 jumps by now. His wife Ivica and daughter Johanna supported the new activity and followed him to the dropzone every time he went. Finally, Ivica Just was ready to try the same. Jozef Just said that "she was very curios why are all those people coming from the landing area were so happy". She completed her own AFF training late in 2019 and has more than 800 jumps by now. She also has a slot in this year's women's world record attempt at Skydive Perris.

Husband and team mate Jozef Just is proud of her skydiving career: "Even though I am worried every time she is in the air I am proud of her as she went through a rough time and came out at least as a mental winner who wants to enjoy the life to its fullest, no matter what it takes, or how long it lasts. Ivica is a breast cancer survivor trying to motivate other women with similar problems to live and enjoy what they have."