posted Feb 14th, 2006 - The NSL News story on February 8 offered a short preview of an upcoming story: "The NSL News will follow up with more breaking news very soon. Marylou Laughlin also confirmed that the US team for the World Meet 2006 in the Women's Class, the reigning world champion Perris Synchronicity, has officially canceled its trip to Germany. Synchronicity has asked for one of the four US slots at the Malevsky Cup 2006 instead."

The NSL News has used the time since the IPC/USPA update by Marylou Laughlin to get confirmation and more information for this story. The rumor has become reality. Perris Synchronicity will not compete at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving and will not try to defend the title of the Women's world champions.

Team Select, formerly known as Fastrax Select, has offered to represent the USA as a substitute team at the World Meet this year, and USPA will most likely approve the second best female team of last year's USPA Nationals as the national team for the World Meet in Germany.

The NSL News has not received information of specific reasons for Synchronicity's withdrawal. USPA's Marylou Laughlin confirmed that the team sent a letter to the USPA Competition Committee and mentioned that the team expressed concerns of possibly not being ready to defend the title successfully.

At the same time, Marylou Laughlin received a request from Synchronicity to sanction the team for the Malevsky Cup 2006 in Russia. The competition of the World Meet 2006 in Germany ends on August 11, while the first day of the Malevsky Cup 2006 in Russia is scheduled for August 12, 2006.

The Chair of the USPA Competition Committee could not explain why Synchronicity was interested in traveling to Russia and would not attend the World Meet in Germany. However, Marylou Laughlin was very much aware of the fact that the chances for the US delegation to defend this set of gold medals would be significantly reduced without Synchronicity.

The US delegation celebrated a complete sweep at the last World Meet in Croatia 2004. Arizona Airspeed won the 8-way gold medals, DeLand Majik added the gold medals in the 4-way Open event, and Perris Synchronicity won the world title in the 4-way Women's event.

The US teams in the Women's 4-way category have contributed a lot into the medal collection of the USA ever since the official introduction of the new event in 2001. In fact, it has always been Synchronicity that won the medals for the US delegation.

Lilac Hayes, Sally Hathaway, Sally Stewart and Eliana Rodriguez won the first set of gold medals in Spain 2001. This line-up was simply nominated by USPA for the World Meet 2001 after the team competed for the first time and won the "Women's Cup" of the World Cup 2000 in Eloy.

Synchronicity with Jaimie Johnson, Sally Hathaway, Sally Stewart and Lilac Christie competed at the USPA Nationals 2002 in the Open Class and then prepared as the US national team for the World Meet in France 2003. The line-up changed for the Mondial 2003, and Jaimie Johnson, Sally Hathaway, Jacquelyn OBryan and Kim Glover ended up in 3rd place this time.

The same line-up competed at the USPA Nationals 2003 in October and was sanctioned once again by USPA as the US national team for the World Meet in Croatia 2004. Synchronicity had to keep an eye on the French team in Croatia but won the gold medals by five points with a 16.9 meet average. The USPA Nationals in October 2004 was only a formality for the 2004 line-up and did not serve as a qualification event for the next World Meet 2006.

The USPA Nationals 2005 was a more competitive event in the Women's category for the first time. Fastrax Select with Michelle Carlstrom, Tammi Rettig, Jacquelyn O'Bryan and Kristina Byrne was out to challenge Synchronicity for the slot in the US delegation 2006.

The defending champion had to fill a slot after Jacquelyn OBryan had left the team at the end of the 2004 season. Becky Brocato joined Kim Glover, Sally Hathaway and Jaimie Johnson for the 2005 line-up and helped to win the feamle competition in Perris after mastering a very challenging obstacle course from New Orleans after hurricane Katrina through the ten rounds of the USPA Nationals 2005.

Synchronicity 2005 and Fastrax Select both competed again at the World Cup in October 2005. The French national team, the Russian Ladybirds and the UK team AirKix were also racing for medals in Eloy. This time, Synchronicity with Becky Brocato fended off the French team by two points with a 16.7 meet average.

The French team was close in October 2005 and is expected to be a strong contender for the gold medals at the Women's 4-way event of the World Meet in Germany this year. However, Synchronicity had managed to stay ahead of the French team already through two tough meet races. The experience and skills would put the team naturally into one of the top positions for the pursuit of the next set of gold medals in Germany.

The chances for the US delegation to defend the Women's Class gold medals this year will be significantly weakened without Synchronicity competing in Germany. Team Fastrax with founder and supporter John Hart has not continued the sponsorship for Team Select this year, while Michelle Carlstrom, Tammi Rettig and Kristina Byrne also have to replace Jacquelyn O'Bryan this year.

Team Select is eager to fill the open slot in the US delegation and feel more of the exciting atmosphere of international skydiving competition. However, the teams knows as well as USPA's Marylou Laughlin that it will be almost impossible for Team Select to defend USA's world title in the women's class.

The distance to France seems to be too much after the results at the World Cup 2005. In addition, the change in the line-up and the missing resources, formerly provided by Team Fastrax and John Hart, add to the obstacles on the way. In fact, it will probably be challenging enough for Team Select to keep up with Russia and the UK team for any medals at the World Meet at all.

The question remains why Synchronicity opens the door for Team Select and makes it probably much easier for France, Russia and the UK to go for the three different sets of medals in Germany.

The Malevsky Cup 2006, apparently Synchronicity's preferred event this year, does not seem to be more important than the World Meet 2006 and does not include a separate category for all-female teams this year. However, it's a great event, and Synchronicity has not visited Russia for any of the previous international competitions in Stupino so far.

USPA will make the final decisions as of the 2006 delegation for the World Meet in Germany and for the Malevsky Cup 2006 in Russia after the BOD Meeting. The NSL News will follow up with more information.