posted Feb 26th, 2024 - The NSL News reported on February 14th that last weekend would feature two popular 4-way competitions that used to offer teams two opportunities to attend attractive and competitive indoor events, one in January, the other one in February. Result of the uncoordinated scheduling was a mixture of teams from different countries exclusively at one event or the other.

Teams from nine different European countries and from Qatar competed at the Wind Games, while especially the 8-way competition at Paraclete XP included several competitors from Europe and the Qatar Falcons, as well. None of the plenty U.S. teams could compete at the Wind Games, as the Paraclete competition has also been the national indoor championship for years.

This situation created the unfortunate fact that the currently two strongest 4-way teams in the world, French national 4-way Open Class team Aethers Medjay and Arizona Airspeed, competed on the same weekend at two different events. The two strongest 8-way teams were not facing this obstacle, as they can perform their sequences only in one of the larger flying chambers. The NSL News update on February 22 included a brief history of 8-way indoor competition, which began at Paraclete XP in 2011. Until then, 8-way teams could only train and compete from jump planes at skydiving centers, while 4-way teams started using the wind tunnel opportunity instantly for training purposes when SkyVenture Orlando was built in 1998.

Wind Games 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		16,4,17		G,E,9,Q		21,K,D,13		A,B,15,20		3,5,F		J,C,P,19		1,8,H		18,7,L		2,10,6		O,22,14		Total	Avg
1	Aethers Medjay	FR	30		53		32		34		38		43	-1	26	-2	32	-1	25		25	-2	338	33.8
Paraclete XP Indoor 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		4,21,F		6,14,5		H,10,K,8		2,D,B,15		O,J,P,22		20,17,18		L,M,C,19		E,13,3		A,1,Q,G		11,12,16		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	28		26	-1	29		33		34		28		38	-1	29		39		26		310	31.0

---

Aethers Medjay at Wind Games - Arizona Airspeed at Paraclete XP

---

It still took several years until Bodyflight Bedford's Paul Mayer discovered the potential for indoor competition in his 16-foot flying chamber, and he launched the annual World Challenge, which began with twelve 4-way teams in 2006 and peaked with 88 in 2014 and 2015. FAI/ISC followed the development of indoor training and competition for a decade since the first World Challenge until the world's sanctioning skydiving federation added their own first event to the annual meet schedule in November 2014.

Eleven teams competed in Austin, Texas, including two French 4-way junior teams in the 4-way Open Class competition, and three VFS teams. FAI/ISC continued with 27 teams at the first indoor world championship in November 2015 at the Hurricane Factory in Prague, half a year after 88 teams had completed their ten rounds in Bedford.

The first Wind Games in January 2016 then attracted 17 teams to Spain, 31 teams followed up at Paraclete XP at the beginning of March, 82 at the World Challenge in April. 39 teams competed half a year later at the FAI Indoor World Cup, including nine teams in the new 4-way Junior category. Wind Games with 28, Paraclete with 31 and World Challenge with 63 teams in 2017 continued to set the standards, while a total of 27 teams, including four junior teams, competed again in October at the indoor world championship in Montreal, Canada. FAI/ISC scheduled their event one more time for a date after the completion of the outdoor season in 2018, and 34 teams competed in Bahrain. Then they switched to the winter time of the year in 2019, which created a tight indoor schedule between January and April for the participants (Wind Games in Spain - Paraclete XP in the U.S.A. - World Challenge in Great Britain - FAI World Championship in France).

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		E,14,3		K,F,22,17		O,7,5		N,2,18		L,P,12,15		M,10,D,H		16,9,C		1,G,J,8		4,Q,21		6,20,A		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		35		39		27	-2	31		38		38		29		28	-1	31		323	32.3
2	France 4-way Open	FR	27		33		38		26	-2	28		33	-3	35		28		30		30		308	30.8

---

Aethers Medjay at Wind Games - Arizona Airspeed at Paraclete XP

---

Creating the annual schedule for teams in 4-way Formation Skydiving has increasingly been a challenging task since the introduction of indoor training and competition, and it is still in motion. Arizona Airspeed and the French national teams had to decide which indoor competition to attend, and they switch back and forth between the indoor and outdoor environment.

All three teams competed last weekend at different events and will meet each other directly at the outdoor competition of the Shamrock Showdown 2024, then switch back to indoor competition at the FAI Indoor World Cup in China. The Shamrock Showdown is the longest-standing competition of the four mentioned events, which do not include the World Challenge any longer.

The indoor world cup in April makes it more difficult for the teams to begin with their outdoor preparations for the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2024 - if they plan to be well prepared for the indoor competition in China. At least three of the teams at both events in Florida and China are in the same situation, and two of them are in direct competition for the world's top spot in both environments. The French Aethers seem to be ready to challenge Airspeed at the indoor competition, while the outdoor situation will have a better defined picture after the Shamrock Showdown. The indoor competition season will be over after the trip to China, while the outdoor competition season just begins at Skydive DeLand.