posted Apr 14th, 2025 - The NSL News had covered the 1-point miss of a new 8-way outdoor record average by GKXP8 after Round 10 of the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships at Crystal Coast in October last year. The three "Olden Knights" (Matt Davidson, Jeshua Stahler, Andrew Starr) discussed the competition and the 8-way history with the NSL News on 9 October 2024.

The same GKXP lineup were then called back to action when France seemed to visit the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 with a formidable team and one of the most experienced 8-way competitors in the world, Martial Ferre, as the NSL News reported on April 8th.

It seemed to be a necessary call back to GKXP8 action, as the NSL News reported next at the end of the first day of 8-way competition at Paraclete XP. D'Arc8 was only one point behind GKXP8 after Round 1 (39 - 38) and the Qatar Falcons were also close enough in 3rd place with their 37-pointer. The 8-way world champions fixed the situation quickly and ran away from France and Qatar in the remaining three rounds of the day and the remainder of the 8-way competition. They finished eventually 50 points ahead of D/Arc8, 68 points head of Qatar Falcons.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		D,4,17		C,22,10		5,P,Q,18		1,M,J,O		16,6,19		H,8,21		12,13,A		L,G,K,9		15,F,7		E,2,N,B		Total	Avg
1	GKXP8	US	39	-1	30		31		40	-1	29	-2	24		28		32	-2	37		35	-2	325	32.5
2	D'Arc8	FR	38		26		26	-1	34	-1	24	-1	22		22	-2	27		29	-3	27		275	27.5
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	37		22	-4	26	-2	30	-5	25	-2	20	-2	22	-3	26	-2	24	-3	25	-3	257	25.7
4	China	CN	24		18	-1	19	-1	23	-2	22		17		18		19	-5	22		18	-3	200	20.0
5	Netunos	BR	20	-3	18		20	-1	23		19		13	-1	17		20	-3	13		15	-3	178	17.8
6	Team Canada	CA	18	-1	14		13	-3	17		15	-2	14		10	-3	17	-1	14		11	-2	143	14.3

---

GKXP8 at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 - NSL Live Talk with GKXP8 members

---

As usually in the past years after the FAI Tanay Mondial in August 2021, GKXP8 were mostly competing with themselves and their own athletic team history. They knew at Crystal Coast last year that they needed 24 points to break the previous record average of 23.9 that the Golden Knights had posted at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016.

The three "Olden Knights" of 2016 told the story during the NSL Live Talk at Crystal Coast in October last year, and the NSL News took a closer look at the GKXP8 scores after Round 9 last Saturday. The U.S. 8-way team with exactly the same lineup needed 35 points this time to break the highest indoor average in formation skydiving history.

Again it was the Golden Knights U.S. Army team who had posted the previous 32.4 record average at the Clash of Champions 2015, and again the same three "Olden Knights" (Matt Davidson, Jeshua Stahler, Andrew Starr) were in the hunt of their own historic 8-way meet average. Matt Davidson and Andrew Starr were available for NSL Live Talk as in October 2024, Kirk Verner and John D'Annunzio joined then this time to review the most recent hunt for a new record average.

Clash of Champions 2015			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		L,F,C,7	5,6,19	2,9,3	G,A,12,10	B,11,22	16,1,21	K,M,18,P	E,O,J,8	Q,17,15	N,H,4,D	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	34	26	30	30	37	34	35	25	31	42	324	32.4
2	Weembi	FR	29	22	25	26	30	30	28	27	28	34	279	27.9
3	Tanay	RU	29	22	20	22	31	30	27	23	25	38	267	26.7
4	Thund8rbirds	BE	24	23	22	22	21	28	28	23	24	35	250	25.0
5	Qatar Falcons	QA	24	19	20	21	25	24	20	19	23	26	221	22.1
6	Dubai Asaar	AE	21	19	19	19	20	23	22	19	21	26	209	20.9
7	Monaco Vitalsea	MC	7	13	16	14	13	11	17	18	17	22	148	14.8

---

Golden Knights at the Clash of Champions 2015 at Inflight Dubai

---

Matt Davidson and Andrew Starr said that they concluded their competition career with GKXP8 and the new record average, one point ahead of themselves with the Golden Knights in 2015. Their former and current 8-way team mate Jesse Stahler continues with the 4-way lineup of the Golden Knights and with the 4-way world championship title of 2026 as a new goal.

John D'Annunzio is also ready for at least a break. He was in the 8-way lineup who dominated the event since 2021 and has collected three outdoor world championship titles (2021, 2022, 2024). The new 32.5 average will probably last for a while, and his name will be engraved three times on the legendary William H. Ottley Sword for the world champions, also known as the 8-way Excalibur.

Kirk Verner has a different task with a different goal. He and Jeana Billings will guide the new XP8 lineup into the next cycle of 8-way competition. The NSL News reported on March 31st who will replace the three "Olden Knights" (Matt Davidson, Jeshua Stahler, Andrew Starr) and John D'Annunzio. The NSL News update on 16 October 2024 had pointed out that Kirk Verner is only one gold medal behind Craig Girard in the hunt for another historic record number. He could match the eight gold medals in 4-way and 8-way that Craig Girard owns at the top of the list with the most successful formation skydiving competitors of all times - if the new lineup can defend the 8-way gold medals successfully in 2026.

4-way Open and 8-way Open multiple gold medal winners between 1985 and 2024

---