posted Feb 5th, 2010 - The NSL News story on 19 January 2010, which covered the Dynamic Fource training camp in DeLand, mentioned that the video clip of the ground activities was also showing a 4-way team from China. The NSL News promised to go back to skydiving in China later on.

The collection of information and footage of the Chinese teams took some time and accumulated to such an amount that it needs to be split up into different segments to cover the complete story. Today's story goes back in time and to previous events.

The teams that competed at the May meet of the Southern California Skydiving League in Perris last year will probably remember that a team from China attended this competition and competed in the AA Class. The NSL News dedicated the headline to the Chinese team with the story on 8 June 2009: "Did you know that a mystery team from China dominated the AA Class competition on May 23?"

The only information that the NSL News had available were the scores of the competition, and they were impressive, as the Chinese team won the AA Class competition with a 14.0 average. The same team also finished in the top spot of the whole AA Class leaderboard that weekend. The NSL News was trying to get more information of the guest team from China after the event but did not get anywhere with the research.

Almost a year has gone by, and it was coincidence that the NSL News could eventually figure out the mystery team. The same team from China spent almost two months in DeLand this winter, and the NSL News had enough time to contact the team and ask for as much information as possible.

The members of the Chinese delegation in DeLand kindly answered all questions and provided video footage without hesitation. It was still a challenging project, as the visitors did not speak and understand the English language very well, and the NSL News is not very familiar with the Chinese language...

Fortunately, the delegation had an interpreter. Yan Yuanling did not only save the life of the story for the NSL News, she was also a very crucial supporter for coach Solly Williams who worked with the two teams from China.

The Chinese team story begins actually even much earlier than in May 2009 in Perris. The Chinese coach of the teams, Zhang Hongwei, was a member of the Chinese national 4-way team that competed at the World Meet 1989 in Spain. NSL News reporter Kurt Gaebel competed at the same event with the German 4-way team and remembered the surprise performance by the Chinese team.

It was the first appearance of a Formation Skydiving team from China at a world meet, and Zhang Hongwei went straight into medal contention with his team. In fact, the US 4-way team of 1989 had to work hard to fend off the new challenger for the bronze medals. China only lost in a jump-off round.

The French TAG Team was far ahead (15.2) of the rest of the field in 1st place. Russia (13.2), USA (13.1) and China (13.1) were in an exciting battle for 2nd and 3rd place. Germany finished in 7th place (12.3), eight points behind China. It was another coincidence that brought coach Zhang Hongwei and the NSL News reporter together in DeLand, 21 years later.

The next event where China came back to the international Formation Skydiving competition world was the World Meet 2008 in France. The NSL News paid attention to the same team in the story on 12 August 2008:

"There is also a serious battle going on at the very bottom of the field. China is not a part of that competition. The host of the Olympics has sent a team to France that has already put enough distance to the 3-way behind. Feng Feng, Liu Hu, Xia Ling, Jian Xiao and Hongwei Zhang on camera represent China at the World Meet 2008."

China finished in 20th place of 24 teams with a 7.7 average after six rounds. Only eight rounds were completed at the World Meet in 2008, due to bad weather. Rounds 7 and 8 were the semifinals and finals.

NSL News reporter in Maubeuge, Nathan Polis, asked the Chinese team manager, He Zhenguo, a few questions. The video of the NSL Talk in 2008 can still be reviewed by clicking here.

He Zhenguo said that his team came to France to learn more about 4-way competition. The same lineup that was now training in DeLand, only with a different videographer, made approx. 50 training jumps before the World Meet 2008 in France.

The team then traveled to the US west coast in 2009 for a long training camp. This year, the delegation was even larger, and the NSL News will continue with the coverage of the DeLand camp later.