posted May 27th, 2024 - The recent 30-year anniversary of Arizona Airspeed was a good reason to take another closer look at the lineups since 1994. The anniversary story pointed out the 15 Airspeed members (Jack Jefferies, Kirk Verner, Dan Brodsky-Chenfield, Mark Kirkby, John Eagle, Craig Girard, Neal Houston, Eliana Rodriguez, Andy Delk, Josh Hall, Thomas Hughes, Niklas Hemlin, Joey Marshall, Christopher Kuhlmann, Mikhail Markine) who collected the six sets of FAI World Championship gold medals, with five different team videographers (John Lemming, Marc Steinbaugh, Steve Nowak, Bill Schmitz, Brendan Haddon).

The same 15 names appear logically on the next list of 4-way world champions that the NSL News generated, next to all other 4-way competitors who have won FAI gold medals at world championships since 1985.

It is a total of 48 competitors who have won the 80 FAI gold medals in 4-way, not considering the team videographers. This means that 19 of the 48 world champions won more than once, and one the original Airspeed members is alone on the top of the list, Mark Kirkby. He is one gold medal ahead of two French (Eric Fradet, Philippe Schorno) and two Belgian (Andy Grauwels, Dennis Praet) 4-way world champions.

NMP PCH HayaBusa member David Grauwels is only one gold medal behind due to the fact that he moved to the camera slot when he and his team mates realized that they could win the FAI Tanay Mondial with their new team mate Michele Silvi. HayaBusa member Jeroen Nollet is still in active pursuit of his 4th world championship title, together with his team mate Dennis Praet, who would catch up with Mark Kirkby if the Belgians will make it back to the top position in the world.

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4-way medal count at FAI World Championships between 1985 and 2022

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The rankings change when they include both open categories in horizontal Formation Skydiving competition, 4-way and 8-way. Mark Kirkby is losing his 4-way top spot to another Arizona Airspeed alumnus. Craig Girard had already collected three 8-way world championship title before he moved to Eloy and engaged in adding 8-way competition to the Airspeed agenda.

Craig Girard was in the Golden Knights 8-way lineup of 1989, 1991 and 1993, then won the next 8-way gold medal with the new Airspeed 8-way team in 1999 before switching to 4-way. Airspeed Vertical and Airspeed Odyssey won 4-way gold medals in 2001 and 2008, and another Airspeed 8-way lineup won the world championship in 2004. Craig Girard lastly joined the Paraclete XP8 lineup of 2022 to win another 8-way gold medal for a total of eight and the sole top position of both events combined.

Craig Girard was first in the Airspeed 8-way lineup that tried to help the original Airspeed 4-way members to their double-gold in both events in 1999. Then he tried the same with Airspeed Vertical in Spain 2001, where the three original Airspeed members (Jack Jefferies, Dan BC, Kirk Verner) did their best to support Craig Girard, Mark Kirkby and John Eagle to win gold medals in 4-way and 8-way both. The double-gold attempt neither worked out in 1999 nor in 2001, however, Craig Girard was and remained ahead of his former Airspeed team mate Mark Kirkby, first when they won together once again in Maubeuge 2008, and even after Mark Kirkby won his next 4-way gold medal in Dubai 2012. Craig Girard then extended the lead with the 8-way gold medal in Eloy 2022.

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Combined 4-way and 8-way medal count at FAI World Championships between 1985 and 2022

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Craig Girard and Mark Kirkby could have been even farther away from the rest of the FAI gold medalists in horizontal Formation Skydiving competition if a French competitor had not interfered with their plans in Menzelinsk 2010. Airspeed Odyssey, with the second female world champion in 4-way Open, Eliana Rodriguez, in their lineup, were ready to defend the world championship title that they had won in Maubeuge 2010. Airspeed Odyssey and the French national team were tied in 1st place after Round 9, and Airspeed landed after a good Round 10 performance.

Craig Girard still remembers the shocking French performance in the last round that won the 4-way battle and created the first competitor in history who won gold medals in 4-way and 8-way at the same world championship. Mathieu Bernier and his three 4-way and 8-way team mates between 2004 and 2010 (brother Guillaume Bernier, Jérémie Rollett, Julien Degen) kept Craig Girard and Mark Kirkby from adding another gold medal to their collections.

Mathieu Bernier is only in 4th place with his four gold medals, far behind Craig Girard in 1st place. However, his accomplishment in Menzelinsk 2010 is still unique. He has been the French national coach since 2014, succeeding his former team mate Jeremie Rollett who is coaching the Qatar Falcons in a full-time job. Julien Degen is still extremely active at Weembi Lille. In the meantime, Original Airspeed member Kirk Verner had his 8-way comeback after winning his last 8-way gold medal in 2004. He won with Airspeed XP8 in Tanay 2021 and then again in Eloy 2022, this time together with Craig Girard. He will move very close to Craig Girard's top position with the next 8-way gold medal later this year.