posted Sep 19th, 2005 - DeLand Fire has made the headlines several times this year, and the team's Point, Natasha Montgomery, and her very progressive career as a 4-way competitor was mentioned within these stories. This previous coverage of DeLand Fire and Natasha Montgomery was a part of the usual NSL News operation before and during the USPA Nationals 2005.

DeLand Fire's success after a breath-taking battle with the Golden Knights in Perris received the deserved attention. However, there is still a fact that has not been mentioned yet. Natasha Montgomery is the first female competitor in US history who has won the 4-way Open Class competition at the USPA Nationals.

There have been other female top competitors in the USA before. Dawn English even won the 4-way gold medals at the World Cup in 1998 with Space Center FX (Joey Jones, Doug Park, Christopher Irwin) after an exciting race with a jump-off over France Maubeuge. The French team moved on to win the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 1999.

Dawn English and FX still did not win the USPA Nationals the same year a month later in Eloy. Arizona Airspeed dominated the 4-way competition on home turf (213 - 192) and did not allow Dawn English to win the US competition with FX. Airspeed traveled to Australia next year and lost against France Maubeuge. Dawn English retired without USPA gold medals.

Eliana Rodriguez already has a collection of USPA gold medals, and her name is engraved on the 8-way Excalibur after winning the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2004. However, she has won all her gold medals in the 8-way event with Arizona Airspeed. Her 4-way line-up in 2005, Airspeed Odyssey, ended up in third place in Perris.

This brings the story back to Natasha Montgomery who managed to win the 4-way event at the USPA Nationals 2005 for the first time in US history. The NSL News already published a brief profile after she won the NSL Championship 2004 with Arizona Blade as a part the meet story in December 2004:

"Natasha Montgomery had made her first skydive in November 2002 and had competed only once before she put Arizona Blade together for the 2004 season. Her 4-way experience was based on the 8.9 average at the USPA Championship 2003 with team Taco Party. She had collected a total of 1,100 jumps when she won the NSL Championship 2004 two years after her first skydive."

An interview with her and Thomas Hughes followed later in December 2004, and the NSL News announced her new plans with DeLand Fire in a story on December 22, 2004, which can still be found in the NSL News Archives of 2004. With the beginnng of the 2005 season, the NSL News followed Natasha Montgomery and DeLand Fire on their way through the 2005 season as a part of the usual coverage, and the DeLand team ended up winning the gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2005.

The NSL News will soon follow up with a more comprehensive NSL Profile of the first female US 4-way champion in USPA's Open Class. At this point, it is also interesting to look at the international competition for DeLand Fire and Natasha Montgomery on her way to possibly become the first female 4-way world champion in IPC's Open Class. DeLand Fire is now qualified as USPA's national 4-way team and can represent the USA at next year's world meet in Germany. As history shows, any US 4-way team is usually a contender for gold medals at world meets.

Norway's Lise Aune was the first serious female contender for IPC's 4-way Excalibur and gold medals at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving. The DeLand Norgies tried three times with Lise Aune and the same line-up (Carl-Erik Tuv, Torstein Valen, Pal Kolbenstvedt) to win more than bronze medals (1999, 2001, 2003) and did not make it.

Sinapsi PD has moved on and has great plans for 2006 and even further. The new line-up with Pete Allum competed at the Malevsky Cup 2005 and still hopes for eligibility for this line-up at the world meet in 2006. However, Italy will have a strong team anyway, and Arianna de Benedetti will be a part of it.

This situation might make the 4-way competition in Germany also a new showdown for the first gold medal won by a female 4-way competitor in IPC's Open Class at a world championship. Norway's Arcteryx line-up also includes a female world class competitor with Ditta Valsdottir, a 2001 IPC world champion in IPC's Women's Class. However, Arcteryx has not arrived at the Italian or US scoring level yet.

There is no female name on the 4-way Excalibur yet. Natasha Montgomery and Arianna de Benedetti seem to have the best chances next year to change that. They already competed against each other at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005, met again at the Malevsky Cup 2005 and both travel to Eloy in October for the World Cup 2005. It is 2-0 for DeLand Fire and Natasha Montgomery so far...