posted Apr 26th, 2024 - Arizona Airspeed's Niklas Hemlin shared his thoughts in the NSL Live Talk on April 11th, after his team's arrival in China, with a preview of the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024. He was back in Arizona when he followed up today with a review of the same event.

There was not really that much to discuss and evaluate of his own team's performance. Not much competition was expected, and Airspeed won by 24 points over the French Aethers. No other 4-way Open Class team managed to win or tie a round, only China's 4-way Women team matched the Airspeed scores in Round 6 and Round 8.

Niklas Hemlin still explained that his team performed the ten indoor rounds as similar to an outdoor competition as possible to avoid necessary technical changes between both environments. He said that the entry into the flying chamber had its special circumstances, as different jump planes have different exit doors, as well.

Arizona Airspeed experienced the specific entry into the flying chamber in China early enough to become familiar with it and eventually copy their usual entry technique. The 34.3 average almost matched this lineup's 34.6 record average at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022, which had a faster competition draw and a 54-pointer (L,C,F,9) for the sequence in Round 2 .

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NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed's Niklas Hemlin before and after the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024

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Niklas Hemlin said that Arizona Airspeed did not specialize on indoor competition as Weembi High Rollers and as an increasing number of 4-way teams do. NMP PCH HayaBusa's signature lineup of 2019 (Dennis Praet, Jeroen Nollet, Andy and David Grauwels) is still the only team in history that broke through the 35+ average level.

It was the last indoor competition for Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine and the current Airspeed lineup. Niklas Hemlin said that they might have been able to reach the 35+ level with enough specific indoor training. He may go back only to indoor competition later and after the conclusion of the current lineup at the end of this year's outdoor season.

The transition to outdoor priority does not impact much on Arizona Airspeed, as the team is training outdoors all year long. The teams at the Shamrock Showdown 2024, including Arizona Airspeed, made this transition already in March. Neither Aethers nor Airspeed had serious opposition in China after this transition, even though the French team was hoping to get closer to Airspeed with the complete lineup and without the unfortunate injury break for Tom Mattoni. Niklas Hemlin's review of the indoor world cup included the 4-way Women competition, as well, where he has spent some time with the U.S. team XPG4 in training. He was just as surprised of the Chinese performance in this event as the whole Formation Skydiving competition community was.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class Top 10		8,C,7		K,G,12,B		6,4,H		20,1,5		15,10,A		F,O,P,21		19,M,9		J,13,E,22		16,3,N		L,Q,D,18		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	35		36	-2	32		29		29		44		39		29		31		39		343	34.3
2	Aethers	FR	32	-1	33		31		27		26		40	-2	36		28	-1	30		36	-1	319	31.9
3	China	CN	27	-4	33	-1	31		26	-1	21	-3	44		32	-3	29		29		33	-1	305	30.5
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	29	-1	32	-1	25	-3	25		25	-1	41		35		28		27		33		300	30.0
5	NFTO	UK	26		27	-1	25	-1	25		23		36	-3	32	-1	27		23	-2	32		276	27.6
6	XPG4	US	29		28	-2	26		25		24		39		31	-1	25	-1	23	-3	26	-3	276	27.6
7	Papea	ES	30		28		25		24	-1	23	-2	38	-1	33		25	-1	22	-1	26	-3	274	27.4
8	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	24	-2	30	-2	27		25		22	-1	37		29	-3	24		25		28	-1	271	27.1
9	China	CN	25		27		26		24		22		33	-4	29	-2	25	-1	20	-3	30		261	26.1
10	Fly X	IT	27	-1	26	-2	23	-2	22		22	-1	37	-2	30	-1	24		21	-3	27	-2	259	25.9

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Arizona Airspeed - France Aethers - China Women at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024

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The extraordinary and unexpected performance of China's team in 4-way Women, and the 3rd place on the combined AAA Class leaderboard, opened the door to more speculation about the outdoor world championship in October. China had plans to compete in 4-way Women at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 and did not follow through.

The same lineup attended previous FAI competitions at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019 at Weembi Lille, the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018 in Bahrain and the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 in Montreal.

However, coach Solly Williams said that the same team is also training and competing outdoors, and the plans for the outdoor world cup in Norway confirmed his experiences with the team and the Chinese delegations. The potential participation of the same Chinese team in 4-way Women at this year's outdoor world championship could have a serious impact on the top of the outdoor leaderboard, as well.

Niklas Hemlin is convinced that U.S. team XPG4 is well prepared to contribute their share to a potential U.S. Formation Skydiving sweep. Arizona Airspeed and GKXP8 seem to have secured their top positions even before Round 1 in October. XPG4 were in a similar position until the conclusion of the outdoor world cup 2023 in Norway and a 26-point distance to the next team. There is a new question mark in the 4-way Women world and behind the FS Sweep, and it was created by China.