posted Dec 23rd, 2010 - The last installment of Jerome David's NSL Profile covers recent history of Formation Skydiving competiton. The last four years, 2007 - 2010, were probably the most exciting part of his coaching career.

The World Meet 2008 was hosted by France in Maubeuge, and the French delegation had all advantages on its side. The home turf alone was not even the biggest advantage. The IPC had agreed to Pilatus Porters for the jump planes, and the right-hand door is very unusual these days and caused a lot of trouble for most of the visiting teams.

Maybe the unusual hurricanes in Maubeuge, right before the start of the competition, were a bad omen for the home teams. Fact is that only the French 8-way team won gold medals, while Arizona Airspeed (4-way Open) and Bodyflight Storm (4-way Female) won the other events. However, Jerome David eventually finished his career with a sweep at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk. The last story explains the road to Russia from his perspective.

2007 - 2010 : Final Track

Jerome David had gathered his national teams at the end of the 2006 season to determine the goals for the next four years. The strategic plan was plain and simple: go for three sets of gold medals in 2010.

The French national coach had checked all the cycles of previous years and concluded that 2-year plans were usually not efficient enough to pursue big challenges. He decided to organise all his teams and the options for training looking at the best approach for 2010 instead.

However, he had to deal with an unpredictable situation. The new 8-way world champion lineup of 2006 was ready to disband. Six of the 8-way members wanted to compete in 4-way where France had not had an official national 4-way team since 2005.

It was obviously difficult to choose four members of six world champions without harming the group dynamics. He had to find a French 4-way mix that will work hard to win gold medals without causing trouble for the 8-way lineup that he had built up since 2004. He also had to recruit a completely new female 4-way lineup, which would require additional money and energy.

Jerome David finally decided to use the results of his own recent evaluation to come up with a tricky 4-year plan that would possibly cover all the basics and have a chance to win all gold medals in 2010. The next World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2008 would be hosted by France, and he needed to win at least one gold medal to guarantee the political stability and future of his whole delegation.

He selected Mathieu Bernier, Guillaume Bernier, Julien Degen and Jeremie Rollett for the new French 4-way Open Class lineup and had one condition. The new team would first have to focus on the 8-way event for two years to guarantee the one needed gold medal for France in Maubeuge 2008. This way, Jerome David would also have enough time to prepare a new generation of 8-way competitors for the World Meet 2010. The new 4-way team would then have the possibility to focus only on 4-way after 2008, and France might have the best chances to reach Jerome David's final goal in 2010.

Result of these politics at the end of the 2006 season was the fact that Jerome David had an 8-way lineup in Maubeuge 2008 with only one change compared to the 2006 lineup. Erwan Pouliquen filled the slot for Damien Sorlin who took a break for professional reasons. Erwan Pouliquen was now technical coach and competitor in 8-way at the same time.

Jerome David then continued with Sophie Deremaux in the female 4-way event and added three new members: Françoise Simons, Berangere Duplouy and Amelie Tirman. Both French 4-way lineups were coached by former French 4-way world champion Marin Ferre. Jerome David looks back very happily at this choice. He had trained and worked with Marin Ferre for many years before and knew that he would be the missing piece for his final 4-way plan, and Marin Ferre would have the same 4-year plan as the whole French Formation Skydiving delegation.

Two years later, the French audience in Maubeuge sang the Marceillaise during the 8-way award ceremony, which left a lasting impression for Jerome David: "This small drop zone that had supported the different French Formation Skydiving teams since 1996 was able to organise a very professional competition with a great atmosphere and strong media coverage."

He was proud of all the efforts he had put into the management of this dropzone for so many years: "Only the rain could show limits in the organisation. But what could we do about rain...?"

Only six rounds were completed, just like two years ago in Germany. However, France had the 8-way gold medals, and the French 4-way Open Class team missed the 1st place only by a single point to Arizona Airspeed. The female 4-way lineup finished in 3rd place. It was actually an acceptable result for the "transitional event".

Jerome David thought that his golden 8-way lineup, the foundation of his 4-year plan, deserved a celebration of the hard work and achievements, and he sent the whole team to compete at the USPA Nationals 2008 in Eloy. The French 8-way team appreciated the extra vacation team and finished its commitment with an impressive meet average above 22 points after ten rounds.

Jerome David's biggest goal was still to be accomplished. Now he needed a new 8-way lineup that would be able to defend the gold medals successfully in 2010. He thought that both his 4-way teams would be ready to compete for the gold medals. Both teams were now perfectly organised and functioned on a very high level of internal cohesion, and they had Marin Ferre's great coaching.

He was prepared for the 8-way situation and the last 2-year period of his 4-year plan. He had in mind a three-layered solution for a couple of months. He had asked Martial Ferre, Marin Ferre’s brother, to come back for just one more last year. Martial Ferre was a 4-way world champion with Jerome David in 1999, and he was also on the French 8-way team that placed 2nd at the World Meet 2003 in France. He had stopped competing to focus on his work and family, even though he still had this bad feeling of "unfinished business" inside.

Jerome David knew that and invited him to come back and take a key slot for a very important mission. Martial Ferre was now the oldest team member, together with Erwan Pouliquen, both coming from the French generation of the 90s. They were Jerome David's first layer of players for the new 8-way project.

The second layer were the recent 8-way world champions (Clement Martin St Leon, Damien Sorlin, Manu Sarrazin) who were a solid group of up-to-date competitors. Finally, he would add three young competitors who he had prepared in the national B-Team lineups since 2007. Julien Olek, Thomas Perrin Gachadoat and Arnaud Mille were selected from a group of ten candidates.

There was only one flaw in Jerome David's 2-year plan. Manu Sarrazin did not commit and would only participate as the alternate. The national coach had to come up with a new solution, which would be a surprising one. Mathieu Bernier had agreed to train and compete in 4-way and 8-way.

The first step of the final two years was promising. The French delegation won the three sets of gold medals at the World Cup 2009 in Prostejov, Czech Republic. Both 4-ways teams were beginning to show their strength and consistency. The 8-way team was learning how to fly like the previous lineup, jump by jump. Both 4-ways attended two more strategic events after Prostejov to prepare themselves and learn to produce their best performances in every competition jump. They competed in Dubai and at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010.

A major psychological step for the 4-way Open Class team was the 1st place at the World Challenge 2010 in April. Mathieu Bernier, Guillaume Bernier, Julien Degen and Jeremie Rollett defeated Arizona Airspeed in Bedford, and Jerome David knew from his own experiences how important this was. His own first World Meet victory over Airspeed in 1999 was preceded by winning the Valentine's Meet on Airspeed's home turf in Eloy.

Jerome David said that each of his three lineups was ready when they traveled to Menzelinsk in Russia this summer. There was no more to do for him, and he became an observer of the competition action. Here is the eye witness report from his perspective:

"First, the 4-way female team opened the road. The girls did an incredible performance and won the gold medals for the 1st time in the French history. Moreover, they realized a female world record with a 47-point jump and finished with a 23.6 average, twenty points ahead of the UK team.

On the 8-way side, after a very bad second day with some performances heading downwards, the new three-layer team finally won by seven points ahead of the Golden Knights to bring back home the 8-way sword for the third consecutive time.

It was a wonderful August 4th. Around the middle of the afternoon, the skydiving gods were completely on the French side this year and with my dream. The end of the day was slowly coming near on this legendary day when the French 4-way team and Airspeed boarded this last Turbolet for Round 10. Both teams had fought and peaked for three complete days, in order to be the masters of those world championships, Airspeed after four years of domination, the French team with the new world record of Round 3 (56-pointer) and all confidence. Both teams were tied going into this last round. Mathieu Bernier, who was already a new 8-way world champion, would have to focus one more time - the 20th time in Menzelinsk. Airspeed scored a wonderful 23-pointer in the last sequence, and the whole dropzone crowd was in front of the big screen for the final judgment. Then the French squad came on the screen to be judged. Everybody witnessed an incredible performance, a kind of a jump that you can just dream of. 26 points! Then the atmosphere became frenzy. The 4-way sword would go back to France, and the first double gold in the history of the sport was here in the hands of Mathieu Bernier. August 4th brought four gold medals for France in all four FS events, and the ultimate accomplishment was here in Menzelinsk!"

It got even better for Jerome David and France when his best friend Philippe Schorno, who was the creator and the coach of the first French Vertical Formation Skydiving team 4speed, also won a gold medal with a memorable victory over the US team Arsenal. It was the first French VFS gold medal in the history of the sport. Menzelinsk was the final destination of a fascinating life dedicated to skydiving for the two friends.

Jerome David has accomplished his triple gold mission that he had always dreamt about. He will now be able to stop and be in peace after this long quest. He feels that he will be quiet for the rest of his life. He will have time to remember those 21 years with the French national teams while dining peacefully with Fred Leroux Toshiba, his packer for more than 16 years, who is also the godfather of his daughter. He says that he will now enjoy with serenity the long winter nights with all his friends from the many different teams, recalling together with them all the big events, the big victories as well as the defeats, the good times and the bad times that he has shared with all of them for so many years.

He has reached the end of this road, and he knows for sure now that the treasure was not winning the gold - it was the road itself that he shared with team mates and friends.