posted Mar 12th, 2024 - Round 1 of the Shamrock Showdown 2024 is only three days away, and the French national teams in 4-way Open (Aethers) and 4-way Women (Nephtys) are both in full training swing at Skydive DeLand, with supervision by their national coach Mathieu Bernier.

They had completed over 30 training jumps on their third day at Skydive DeLand and had two more days on the agenda before taking a break on Wednesday. The weather situation has been in support of the training efforts, and the forecast for the Shamrock Showdown competition days indicates a completion of the ten rounds on the scheduled meet days, Friday and Saturday, with Sunday as the weather day and for left-over meet rounds.

Monday was the fourth training day for the French delegation, and it was a windy morning, even though the wind situation on the ground did not show that there was a stronger drift at jump altitude. Result was a critical spot and an off-landing for both French teams, who were in the first load of the day.

They had to pick landing spots in unknown territory away from the airport, and it turned out that the youngest member of the French delegation, Tom Mattoni, found himself in the worst spot of the ones available. The impact of the improvised landing caused a fracture in his right foot, which meant the end of his trip to Florida and a return to France for medical treatment.

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France 4-way Open Aethers in training at Skydive DeLand

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Shamrock Showdown 2024
Rank	AAA Class Power Rankings
1	Arizona Airspeed	US
1	France 4-way Open	FR
3	Golden Knights	US
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US
5	Nephtys	FR
6	Thyra	NO
6	Chicken Bolts	US
8	Teiwaz	US

Tom Mattoni is one of the youngest and most talented 4-way competitors in the world and in the history of the sport. The NSL News mentioned his name for the first time on 26 April 2016 when he competed with one of the Aerokart Ak'demie lineups in the AA Class competition of the World Challenge 2016.

He had started with 4-way training and competition even earlier. He attended his first competition in March 2014, with his very young team mates Noah Bereaux, Eliot Massier and Valentin Vazille in the lineup.

The NSL News reported on 26 March 2014 that France had launched a 4-way competition project for children, and Tom Mattoni was one of the original French 4-way juniors.

Ten years later, he is now 19 years of age and the outside center for a French national team that seems to challenge Arizona Airspeed for the world's top spot in horizontal 4-way competition. He has barely accumulated 1000 skydives, while he is one of the most-skilled 4-way competitors in the world. His French profile as a national competitor gives him 300 hours of tunnel time. Both numbers are rapidly increasing for every member of the French national teams.

The Aethers with Tom Mattoni are one of the very few teams who have outscored or tied Arizona Airspeed in a competition round, and they have been on the way to adding more winning rounds in the coming events.

French national coach Mathieu Bernier was in a different situation in his time. The French 4-way Open Class team of 2006 - 2010 was almost in a similar situation as Arizona Airspeed is now. Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollett, Mathieu and his brother Guillaume Bernier outscored Arizona Airspeed lineups in many competition rounds.

FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		3,G,N,19		11,17,L		13,7,C		2,D,O,8		14,K,J,12		9,M,P,H		5,4,18		15,1,10		16,21,E		F,20,6		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26		27		26		25		22		48	-1	22		21		25		25		267	26.7
2	France 4-way Open	FR	23		25	-1	26		24		19		45	-1	19		19		23		23		246	24.6
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
Shamrock Showdown 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		14,O,7		C,9,11		4,2,F		Q,13,21		B,6,L,19		1,22,G		K,18,8		M,3,17		H,15,12		D,20,10		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26		28		25	-1	24		27	-1	21		22		27		22	-1	22		244	24.4
2	France 4-way Open	FR	26		25	-1	23		24		25	-1	19		19		26		19		18		224	22.4
FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	-1	28		27		27		31		23		21		20		32		31		261	26.1
4	France 4-way Open	FR	19		23	-1	22		23		27		20	-1	18		15	-1	20	-5	27	-1	214	21.4

As the NSL News has pointed out often enough, Mathieu Bernier has been the only competitor in the history of the sport who has won gold medals in 4-way Open and 8-way Open at the same outdoor world championship in Menzelinsk 2010.

Mathieu Bernier is currently in DeLand with his two national teams, and he is coming back into 4-way competition action. He and his 4-way Open Class team, Aethers, have decided to continue with training and enter the Shamrock Showdown competition with the famous alternate.

Despite his position as the national coach, Mathieu Bernier has not retired from active 4-way. In fact, he competed with the French national team in 4-way Open at the French Outdoor Nationals 2021, with Gaelle Giesen, Damien Gouriou, Alban Rumolo and team videographer David Ricard in the lineup, and he is still always ready when he might be needed. He will be back in action at the Shamrock Showdown, and the performance level will probably not drop much, if at all. He was already in training with the team on Tuesday, before he gave Tom Mattoni a ride to the airport in Orlando.