posted Feb 23rd, 2006 - The NSL News covered the recent decision of Perris Synchronicity not to compete at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 with a story on February 14th. The topic remained alive since the story was posted, and this update offers the current status.

The USPA Meeting last weekend in Phoenix included the confirmation of Team Select as the official national US team in the Women's event for this year's World Meet in Germany. The USPA Competition Committee also confirmed that Synchronicity is eligible to compete at the Malevsky Cyp 2006, an IPC event of the 1st category.

The preparations of the NSL News coverage of the World Meet in Germany is already in the final stages, and the event managers of the Malevsky Cup are also interested in having the NSL News reporting from Russia once again. There is a good chance that both top events will be brought to the NSL audience by the NSL News in August this year.

The NSL News also tried to get feedback directly from Synchronicity to find out about the reasons for the surprising decision to skip the World Meet and travel to Russia instead. The team's Outside Center, Jamie Johnson, took the time to explain how Synchronicity came to the decision:

"With regard to the WPC in Germany, after competition at the World Cup in Eloy last year, we spent a great deal of time comprehensively evaluating the team's options for the 2006 training year. We have received generous support from our sponsors, but as a self-funded team, we have had to dedicate all of our personal resources in order to train hard and compete successfully on the international level."

Synchronicity obviously spent a lot of money for training and competition in 2005 and in the previous years. It turned out to be a balance act between the temptation of continuing within the exciting world of 4-way competition in the Women's Class at the top level in the word and the tough reality of financial security, as Jamie Johnson explains:

"None of us would trade our team experiences for all the medals in the world, so the choice to step back this year was a difficult one to make. This was especially true because there was so much potential we could see at the close of the 2005 season. The team was right where we wanted it to be after a light training year in 2005, and we were in a great position to have the performance increases we wanted in 2006."

At the end of the thought process within the team, Synchronicity felt that the team would probably not be ready to perform on the expected performance level that the team was in great position for at the end of the 2005 season. Jamie Johnson gave the background information of the decision:

"But in the end, we came to the conclusion that this year we just don't have the available time or financial resources required to train at a level acceptable to us for a WPC, and one that will permit us to perform at our highest potential when representing the United States at a World Championship. One member has begun a new construction company with her husband, one is neck deep into a PhD program, and others are making life changes that also preclude intense training this year."

Synchronicity's Outside Center continued with the position of any US team at this year's World Meet and then mentioned Team Select as the recently confirmed US national team in the Women's event:

"We have a great deal of respect for the World Championship event and for the teams competing in it. As such, we won't take on the sole U.S. Team slot unless we can train properly for the event. This doesn't necessarily mean winning. It doesn't even mean medaling. It just means that we need to feel good about the investment we make in the training year for a WPC. We can't make that happen this year. I think too that this choice was made a little easier because there is another U.S. team qualified to go to Germany. We can all feel good about watching another team have a chance to chase their dreams, and we fully support Team Select as the U.S. female team in 4-way. They have a new direction this year that will serve them well, and we wish them lots of success this year."

The NSL News had also asked Jamie Johnson how the reasons for the team's decision not to compete in Germany goes along with the plans to travel to Russia and attend the Malevsky Cup 2006 instead. She also provided an insight of the thoughts that were leading Synchronicity to this change of plans:

"We have always wanted to attend the Malevsky Cup. The event, as you know, is one of a kind, but in the past we didn't have the time and money to attend two large international meets in a single year. This year seems to be the perfect opportunity for us to attend. If we go to Malevsky we can put together a training schedule that we can feel good about, and we're also able to support an event that is likely to have limited participation this year because it is scheduled so close to the WPC in Germany."

Perris Synchronicity obviously continues as a team this year, and the NSL News will most likely post some of the team's scores and information, at least from the Malevsky Cup 2006. Team Select will have the big job of trying to bring back any set of medals from Germany in August this year. Where will Synchronicity go from Russia? Jamie Johnson has a short answer:

"As for the future, only the shadow knows..."