posted Oct 13th, 2004 - The "post-season" continues for some of the celebreties in 4-way Formation Skydiving competition. Italy's Arianna de Benedetti of Sinapsi PD, who was recently featured at the NSL Profiles, traveled from Croatia to California and competed with Dr. Joel Shugar's guest team Optic Kurves in the Open Class at the USPA Nationals 2004.

Lise Aune, former DeLand Norgies member and new Norwegian national coach, joined de Benedetti, Dr. Shugar and Scott Keeler for a complete Optic Kurves reunion. The same line-up had already competed at the USPA Nationals 2003. Airspeed member Eliana Rodriguez replaced Keeler for "Optic Curvacious" at the NSL Championship in November for SkyQuest 2003. Dr. Shugar's long-time teammate Scott Keeler was now back in the Optic Kurves line-up in Perris, while Rodriguez competed with Airspeed Blue in 4-way.

The same line-up with de Benedetti, Aune, Dr. Shugar and Keeler is already registered as a guest team for this year's NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2004. The post-season events are once again very special for Norway's Lise Aune. The NSL audience might remember that Aune was already pregnant with daughter Kari when she won the bronze medal for Norway at the Mondial 2003 in September.

Optic Kurves' original line-up then competed for the first time at the USPA Nationals 2003 in October in Lake Wales. It was the second competition for Aune's unborn first baby. This meet was still not the last one for the pregnant mother. Optic Curvacious competed in November at SkyQuest 2003 and included once again the Norwegian world class competitor and coach. The following winter break gave Aune enough time to rest and deliver the happy and healthy baby Kari in DeLand.

This year's post-season does not seem to be much different. The same Optic Kurves line-up competed in Perris last week, and Lise Aune was pregnant once again. She was also at the FS World Championship 2004 in Croatia before, this time as the Norwegian head coach. However, she did not jump with the team in Coatia. The second active event for the pregnant mother and Optic Kurves will be this year's NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2004 in November.

The new baby will still not be behind the very competitive and experienced sister Kari. The post-season has another event in store for Lise Aune, her Optic Kurves/Curvacious teammates Arianna de Benedetti and Eliana Rodriguez. Dan BC, Airspeed veteran and gold medal coach with the female team Perris Synchronicity, has put together a special event that is scheduled shortly after SkyQuest 2004. Aune will add a third skydiving competition to the new baby's agenda, which will make it even between the kids. Then comes the winter break, and May 2005 is the due date for the new baby skydiver.

Dan BC explains his project that is scheduled for November 23 - 29: "In preparation for the 2004 World Meet of Formation Skydiving I had the opportunity to coach Synchronicity, the USA women's 4-way team. The team and I had a great year that involved eight 4-day camps and resulted in a gold medal victory.

Over the course of the year I developed mixed feelings about the women's category. A few things seemed clear. 1) If the IPC is going to have a female category, then the USA should field a team. 2) Having this women's category provides an arena for female competitors that may have had a difficult time breaking into a mainly male dominated event. 3) It is definitely a benefit in terms of publicity and marketing for the sport.

These are all good things. But, having a female category implies that women can't compete on an even playing field with men. One of the things that separates our sport from many others is that women can compete equally with men. This isn't football or basketball where pure size is an advantage. Not only that, but there are several women who have proven this to be true and have received medals in the open category at the world meets as members of the top 4-way and 8-way teams. The only problem with this is that all of these top female competitors are from different countries.

Nina Kuebler (former member of the Swiss national team Endeavour) and I were having dinner one night and discussing this topic. Suddenly a great idea flashed before us: the 'International Women's Team Week'. This is going to be incredible. The four top female FS competitors in the world, Nina Kuebler of Switzerland, Lise Aune of Norway, Arianna De Benedetti of Italy and Eliana Rodriguez from the USA will join forces for a week of team training.

We can't wait to see what these ladies can do in the air. They will be available all week to share their ideas on team building and training techniques in both the air and the tunnel. We are also looking forward to having their expertise during the 'Team Building Workshop'."

The "International Women's Team Week" will be concluded with a 4-way competition where the world class line-up will surely post impressive scores. Dan BC has more information available and can be contacted by e-mail.

Lise Aune, Arianna de Benedetti and Eliana Rodriguez have already been featured at the NSL Profiles. The interesting personal background information can still be found. These three world class athletes are not only joined by the Swiss world class competitor Nina Kuebler. Dawn English, who won the FS World Cup in 1998 with Space Center FX (Joey Jones, Doug Park, Christopher Irwin) was the first female competitor who reached the very top of the world in the open class. Her NSL Profile will be added soon. Other female world class competitors include the Russian 8-way member Elena Tchistova and Arizona Blade's Natasha Montgomery who both compete in the open class, as well.