posted Feb 6th, 2024 - The NSL News visited the Golden Knights 4-way team during the winter training at Skydive City, and the update on January 28th included NSL Live Talk with the complete lineup and coach Niklas Hemlin.

The conversation included the introduction of new team videographer Skyler Romberg. He has replaced Andy Sippl, who was filming the team throughout the 2023 season and has moved to different assignments for the U.S. Army.

Skyler Romberg was filming the team for the first time at Skydive City and provided impressive video footage from the beginning. The Golden Knights followed up on the NSL Live Talk with a copy of a training jump video that features the team in 4-way action. The 4-way performance of the Golden Knights is just as impressive as the quality of the video footage, and it shows the results of the cooperation with coach Niklas Hemlin.

The first video of the current Golden Knights lineup in freefall action is an appetizer of what can probably be expected soon in the near future, first time at the Shamrock Showdown 2024. Coach Niklas Hemlin will not be available at Skydive DeLand, as he is competing with Arizona Airspeed at the same event, and he knows that his own team will have their hands full to fend off the French national team in 4-way Open.

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Golden Knights in 4-way Training at Skydive City, Video Footage Courtesy of Skyler Romberg

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Arizona Airspeed and France 4-way Open are arguably the two best 4-way teams in the world at the moment, and the Golden Knights are not ready yet to match their performance and scoring level. However, the 4-way teams of the U.S. Army have shown often enough in the past that they match the world's highest level not only in 8-way competition.

4-way competition had lower priority for the U.S. Army when the Golden Knights 8-way team were in their "Golden Decade" between 1987 and 1997. They won six consecutive world championship gold medals before former Golden Knights member Craig Girard launched a new 8-way project for Arizona Airspeed.

The priority of the Golden Knights switched to 4-way competition when John Hoover, Eric Heinsheimer, Kurt Isenbarger and Chris Talbert were assigned to represent the U.S. Army in Formation Skydiving competition, with Sean Capegreco on camera.

The 8-way team was lower priority at that time, and the 4-way lineup went to full-time work.

USPA Nationals 2002		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	B,12,2	K,6,4	20,5,13	D,Q,11,18	N,3,9	A,21,16	22,H,L,J	G,C,7,15	E,19,17	10,P,M,8	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	19	21	19	21	29	22	23	23	22	19	218	21.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	19	22	18	21	26	22	22	21	23	21	215	21.5
3	DeLand Majik	19	19	20	20	24	22	23	24	22	19	212	21.2
4	Golden Knights Black	15	17	16	17	20	17	20	20	19	16	177	17.7
5	Airspeed Zulu	17	18	14	17	22	15	18	17	17	16	171	17.1
6	Cross Keys Fluid	16	16	13	15	18	16	15	13	15	15	152	15.2
7	DeLand Frost	15	16	12	13	17	15	17	17	14	13	149	14.9
8	Ranch Tribe	14	14	13	13	17	11	16	10	15	13	136	13.6
9	Elsinore Adrenaline	13	13	12	13	16	11	15	13	15	13	134	13.4
10	Synchronicity	12	12	10	12	17	13	13	15	12	12	128	12.8
11	Untrained Eye	12	12	11	13	14	10	11	9	12	11	115	11.5
12	Team Kruegeraand	8	8	6	5	6	7	6	7	8	5	66	6.6

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Golden Knights 4-way Team at the USPA Nationals 2002

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It took the new 4-way lineup only one year to get to the top level in the United States. John Hoover and Eric Heinsheimer were selected from the 8-way lineup that won the last 8-way gold medal in Turkey 1997. Kurt Isenbarger was recruited for the 8-way team in 1998, together with new 8-way videographer Chris Talbert. Team captain John Hoover then selected them for his new 4-way team with top priority.

The Golden Knights won the USPA Nationals 2002 by three points over Arizona Airspeed's Vertical 4-way world champions of 2001 (Craig Girard, John Eagle, Neal Houston and Mark Kirkby, with Mark Steinbaugh on camera), which was a major and unexpected upset. The Golden Knights had now taken the 4-way spot away from Arizona Airspeed, as Airspeed had taken the 8-way away from the Golden Knights in 1998.

The same Golden Knights 4-way team competed for the United States in Gap 2003 and finished in 2nd place behind France. John Hoover continued with a new lineup in 2004 (Matt Davidson, Brian Krause, Brooks Weiner, Larry Miller on camera), and neither Arizona Airspeed nor Golden Knights won the qualification for the next world championship. It was time for DeLand Majik to compete for the U.S. delegation in 4-way Open. The U.S. Army's priority switched back to 8-way in 2009, and the next era of Golden Knights 8-way dominance concluded with four consecutive FAI world championship gold medals between 2012 and 2018. Jesse Stahler won three 8-way gold medals with the Golden Knights in 2014, 2016 and 2018. However, his new 4-way lineup could be on track towards the top of the 4-way leaderboards in the future, as well.