posted Nov 20th, 2024 - Arizona Airspeed's recruiting story continues with new NSL Live Talk. Niklas Hemlin is one of the many celebrities of the Airspeed alumni in the last 30 years since Skydive Arizona owner Larry Hill launched the project with Jack Jefferies, Mark Kirkby, Dan BC and Kirk Verner in 1994, with John Lemming on camera for the first six years (1994 - 1999).

Niklas Hemlin has always made himself available when there was a request for NSL Live Talk, either together with the whole team, with only some of his team mates or all by himself. He likes to share his experiences and thoughts with the Formation Skydiving community and supports the NSL News as much as possible. It was of course no surprise for him when the NSL News was interested in his feedback and insights after the completion of the recruiting process, and he invested an hour of his time for the update.

He has been through several recruiting procedures by himself, together with other Airspeed team mates. He was invited into a new Airspeed lineup by Mark Kirkby in 2011, together with Thomas Hughes and Josh Hall. This lineup then consisted of two former British citizens and Niklas Hemlin from Sweden. He had left his own original home country in 1999 to join Space Center FX, with Joey Jones and Doug Park in the lineup, or make a career with the Golden Knights. Neither worked out, and he settled with DeLand PD Blue, followed by his time with Fastrax. However, his time with the Swedish national 4-way teams and the two U.S. teams prepared him well for his Airspeed selection.

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NSL Live Talk with Niklas Hemlin on 18 November 2024

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FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		13,Q,D,9	5,K,F,12	1,14,22	H,M,11,7	A,E,3,G	15,18,3	20,L,23	O,19,4	17,10,J	6,C,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	20	18	23	27	15	20	16	21	24	210	21.0
2	France	FR	25	19	17	22	25	16	20	21	20	21	206	20.6
3	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	25	20	16	20	20	15	17	20	21	19	193	19.3
4	Russia	RU	24	18	17	17	23	14	12	19	17	19	180	18.0
5	Sebastian XL	UK	24	17	14	21	19	13	16	19	15	18	176	17.6
6	DeLand Norgies	NO	20	14	12	18	20	12	14	17	16	18	161	16.1
7	Switzerland	CH	21	15	13	17	18	13	14	16	16	16	159	15.9
8	Australia	AU	17	17	14	17	19	10	14	17	17	16	158	15.8
9	Spain	ES	21	16	13	13	19	13	14	16	18	14	157	15.7
10	Daedalus	DE	19	14	13	17	20	12	12	16	15	17	155	15.5
11	Velox	SE	19	11	12	16	18	11	13	17	16	-	133	14.8
12	Japan	JP	19	13	11	15	19	11	11	17	14	-	130	14.4
13	Italy	IT	19	11	11	15	18	11	12	14	12	-	123	13.7
14	Monkey Circus	AT	19	13	11	8	16	11	14	17	13	-	122	13.6
14	Finland	FI	19	12	13	13	16	12	10	16	11	-	122	13.6
16	Belgium	BE	18	13	12	14	14	10	13	14	11	-	119	13.2
17	Hungary	HU	15	12	11	14	17	9	10	14	15	-	117	13.0
18	Canada	CA	18	12	12	10	15	9	7	15	13	-	111	12.3
19	Netherlands	NL	17	11	10	9	15	9	12	12	13	-	108	12.0

Niklas Hemlin won his first FAI gold medal with his first Airspeed lineup in Dubai 2012 as inside center, after a dramatic 10-round battle with NMP PCH HayaBusa. He did not continue with the next Airspeed lineup that Mark Kirkby and Thomas Hughes put together and came back when only Thomas Hughes and Thiago Gomes recruited a new lineup two years later, now with former citizens of Great Britain (Thomas Hughes), Brazil (Thiago Gomes), Sweden (Niklas Hemlin), and with one U.S. citizen Chris Farina.

The next Airspeed member came originally from Russia (Mikhail Markine), and the 2016 lineup did not have any original U.S. citizen in the lineup, except for team videographer Justin Price. Finally, the three Airspeed members from Sweden, Russia and Brazil selected U.S. citizen Ari Perelman as their new team mate in 2017 and 2018.

Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine went even further and recruited two young U.S. competitors for their next lineup, and the new lineup then dominated the world's 4-way competition until last month. Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann have experienced the development of a world champion team in the past five years, and the Airspeed history is showing clearly that there are no international borders in the way of recruiting new Airspeed members. Niklas Hemlin has known Alisson de Vargas and Doug Hendrix both for several years, Alisson de Vargas even longer than the U.S. competitor. Both were already under the Airspeed microscope for a while, even though the lineup was complete and progressing like no other since 2020. Niklas Hemlin did not know in 2020 that he would never recruit new team mates.

FAI World Meet 1995			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	16	26	26	20	18	23	21	18	21	18	207	20.7
2	France	FR	16	25	26	18	17	21	23	17	21	21	205	20.5
3	Touche	DK	15	21	22	18	16	19	18	15	18	17	179	17.9
FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		13,Q,D,9	5,K,F,12	1,14,22	H,M,11,7	A,E,3,G	15,18,3	20,L,23	O,19,4	17,10,J	6,C,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	20	18	23	27	15	20	16	21	24	210	21.0
2	France	FR	25	19	17	22	25	16	20	21	20	21	206	20.6
3	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	25	20	16	20	20	15	17	20	21	19	193	19.3

Niklas Hemlin remembered that an earlier conversation with the NSL News, related to 4-way world champions as a topic, brought to the surface that he had only won one FAI world championship gold medal in Dubai 2012, compared to all Airspeed members and other international 4-way competitors. His gold medal count is now at four, three in 4-way (2012, 2022, 2024) and one in 8-way (2021).

Niklas Hemlin and the complete lineup between 2020 and October 2024 also have something very special in common with the original lineup of 1994 - 1999. They are the only two U.S. teams who won two sets of outdoor world championship gold medals with exactly the same lineups, the original one even with the same team videographer. Niklas Hemlin, Chris Kuhlmann, Mikhail Markine and Joey Marshall had Brendan Haddon on camera in Eloy 2022, while Alex Swindle was filming them to their new gold medals last month.

The time as an active competitor seems to be over for Niklas Hemlin by now, while he will continue to be engaged in Formation Skydiving competition on the highest level. He has been coaching the Golden Knights who are now entering their third year with the same lineup and with a budget and agenda of a full-time team. He said that he is naturally sharing some institutional Airspeed knowledge with any of the teams that he is working with, and he sees no problem with that. For him, the fact of the matter is simple and counts for every sport and other areas in life: "You don't get what you may think you deserve - you get what you eventually produce." And that is usually the ranking position after Round 10 at a competition.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 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
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	20	-1	25	-2	21		23		28		20	-2	19		17		29		26		228	22.8
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	19	-2	23	-1	22	-1	21	-1	26		18		17	-1	17		28		28		219	21.9
FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		14,G,13		J,C,17,12		D,A,21,P		18,B,H,F		E,L,O,8		22,2,K		6,7,16		9,20,15		3,M,N,4		5,1,10		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	24		27	-1	33		36		31		23		26		26		25		22	-1	273	27.3
2	Aethers	FR	22		23	-4	33		32	-1	29		23		22		21		25		22		252	25.2
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	21		20	-3	26	-2	32		29	-1	20		21		20		19	-2	20		228	22.8

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Arizona Airspeed at the FAI Outdoor World Championships 2022 and 2024

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