posted Dec 24th, 2024 - The NSL News indicated with the update on August 22nd that Germany had realistic chance to defend their FAI 8-way bronze medals successfully at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships. It was not clear at that time who would compete for the German delegation at Crystal Coast Skydiving.

The Airbus 8-way team had won the first FAI medals in Germany's Formation Skydiving history in Eloy 2022, supported by the absence of a Russian 8-way team and a strong French lineup. However, the bronze medal success in 2022 might have initiated the 8-way activities in Germany that followed shortly after the conclusion of the 2022 season.

A new team, Operation Adler, launched an effort to challenge the Airbus 8-way team for the slot as the national team at the next outdoor world championship, and the NSL News followed the development and the final showdown at the German Outdoor Nationals 2024. Operation Adler, who won the national championship in 2023 and qualified as the national 8-way team at this year's event, was a new team with a new name, while the lineup consisted of several of the most experienced German 4-way and 8-way competitors in the last two decades. Eventually, it was not really a big surprise that Operation Adler won the qualification, despite the drama at the end of the 10-round competition.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-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	Paraclete XP8	US	25	-1	20		20	-1	18	-1	18		19	-1	23		26	-1	16	-2	20	-2	205	20.5
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	21	-1	14	-2	16	-1	17		16		15	-1	19	-1	20	-1	14	-1	12	-4	164	16.4
3	Airbus	DE	18		14		14		13		4	-1	12	-2	16		16		12		14		133	13.3
FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-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	GKXP8	US	19	-1	21	-1	22		26		21	-1	21	-1	25		24		37		23		239	23.9
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	16		18		19		21		17		16	-1	20		19		25	-2	19		190	19.0
3	Operation Adler	DE	14		14		11	-2	13	-1	13		14		15		14		20	-2	15		143	14.3

---

Airbus at the 25th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships - Operation Adler at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships

---

It turned out that the winner of the 8-way duel in Germany, Operation Adler, indeed defended the FAI 8-way bronze medals successfully at Crystal Coast in North Carolina, even with significantly more distance to the team in 4th place (Netunos, Brazil) compared to Airbus in 3rd place by 13 points over British 8-way team MicroClim8 in Eloy 2022.

The NSL News update on October 31st pointed out that the internal duel between the two German 8-way teams at their national qualification was much more exciting and challenging than winning the second set of FAI bronze medals later this year.

The two consecutive 8-way bronze medals for Germany seem to be a healthy motivation for German Formation Skydiving competitors to continue with the 8-way efforts, for the 4-way and 8-way competitors of the older generations, as well as for the current top performers. Plans for the next strong 8-way team are already in the works. Operation Adler had a combination of experience and talent in their lineup, including Airbus 8-way members of 2007 - 2012 (Olaf Biedermann, Göran Meyer, Jörn Thiele, Thomas Mack), together with Airbus 4-way and Meltemi members Linda Köb, Felix Pfeiffer, Alexander Prendinger, and Christian Schaefer.

FAI World Championship 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		17,P,4	H,13,7	6,M,1	9,22,C	16,J,8	K,F,G,18	O,Q,5,12	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	18	26	22	22	24	16	151	21.6
2	USA	US	18	18	26	21	22	19	16	140	20.0
3	Ex3mo	IT	20	16	22	17	18	18	15	126	18.0
4	EADS	DE	21	14	20	15	16	14	14	114	16.3
5	Connextion	UK	15	12	15	13	14	13	12	94	13.4
6	Belgium	BE	14	11	16	11	14	14	12	92	13.1
7	South Africa	ZA	14	9	16	12	13	11	-	75	12.5
8	Spain	ES	13	6	13	10	13	13	-	68	11.3
9	Australia	AU	11	5	10	9	9	7	-	51	8.5

Operation Adler's Olaf Biedermann, Göran Meyer and Max Thiele had won their first FAI bronze medals in Eloy 2022, together with Airbus 8-way members of 2023/2024, Thomas Spielvogel and Steffen Schiedek, plus new world meet participants Linda Koeb, Carl Enders and Stefan Knoch. Olaf Biedermann, Göran Meyer and Jörn Thiele now shared their next place on the FAI podium of 2024 with Airbus 4-way members Thomas Mack, Felix Pfeiffer, Alexander Prendinger, plus Christian Schaefer and again Meltemi's Linda Koeb.

It seems like Germany's current 8-way success keeps attracting more of the country's top competitors to connect with the three 4-way and 8-way veterans of the Airbus lineups between 2007 and 2012. The German Airbus 8-way teams of this time period ended up in 4th places and without FAI medals, despite their higher meet averages.

Olaf Biedermann, Göran Meyer and brothers Max and Jörn Thiele trained and competed with Markus Bastuck, Thomas Spielvogel, Henning Stumpp and Thomas Mack in their lineups in the same time period 15 years ago, who are all still active in the sport and have not had the pleasure of climbing up onto the FAI podium at world championships. Only Max Thiele and Thomas Spielvogel were in the Airbus lineup of Eloy 2022 where they won their first bronze medals. Olaf Biedermann, Göran Meyer and Linda Koeb are the only German 8-way competitors with two bronze medals in their collections. Operation Adler and Airbus members of 2024 are now working on a new lineup for the coming two years and the defense of the 3rd place on the FAI leaderboard in 2026. It could be an opportunity for their team mates of 2007 - 2012 to finally join them on the 8-way podium.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		N,21,B,5	14,C,13	22,M,20	17,H,16	J,E,12,4	7,19,15	G,K,8,2	O,L,F,P,A	10,11,18	9,Q,D,1	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21	19	27	26	26	18	20	28	19	25	229	22.9
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	22	19	22	23	27	20	20	28	19	25	225	22.5
3	Barkli 8	RU	19	18	22	22	21	15	15	24	16	20	192	19.2
4	EADS 8	DE	14	13	15	15	18	14	14	16	13	16	148	14.8
5	VIVA 8	CH	13	13	15	15	14	11	12	17	13	13	136	13.6
6	Dubai Asaar 8	AE	11	11	12	11	10	10	10	12	12	12	111	11.1
7	M8Trix	NL	11	11	11	12	12	10	10	12	10	-	99	11.0
8	Brit Chicks 8	UK	11	11	12	11	14	10	11	11	6	-	97	10.8
9	South Africa 8	ZA	12	11	11	10	13	9	9	11	10	-	96	10.7
10	Qatar Falcons	QA	11	9	11	11	12	9	9	11	8	-	91	10.1
11	Australia	AU	10	8	9	11	12	10	9	13	-	-	82	10.3
12	The 8 Team	BE	8	11	7	11	12	9	10	12	-	-	80	10.0
12	CTR Optimum 8	BR	9	9	11	12	10	9	10	10	-	-	80	10.0
14	Austria	AT	8	8	9	10	10	6	7	8	-	-	66	8.3
15	Maximum Ride	CA	8	8	7	8	7	8	7	7	-	-	60	7.5
16	Singapore 8	SG	8	7	8	5	5	6	7	8	-	-	54	6.8

---

EADS/Airbus at the FAI Dubai Mondial 2012

---