posted Oct 11th, 2006 - The NSL News offered an overview of the situation in Formation Skydiving competition in Germany earlier this year. The last article on September 12 reported that the German national 4-way team at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006, EADS, won the 4-way and 8-way competition of the DFV-Cup a few weeks after the World Meet.

The double victory in 4-way and 8-way is still a very special feature and happens very rarely on a national level. It has never been achieved to date at a world championship. USA and France both gave it a try in the past and did not succeed.

The EADS story on September 12 hinted already with the headline that the next national double gold opportunity would be available for the German team at the national championship in 2007: "EADS and Thomas Spielvogel might have a unique opportunity next year".

However, the options laid out in the article were mostly based on potential success on the national level. German Formation Skydiving competition teams have not spent much time in the past to consider realistic chances for medals at a world championship competition, neither in 4-way nor in 8-way.

A recent update from Germany explained what the top 4-way teams, EADS and Next Generation, plan for the near future, and the main focus is still on maintaining the top positions in Germany. Both teams will continue with their new efforts in 8-way, while EADS hands over the 4-way competition to Next Generation.

The team speaker of the 8-way line-up, Jens Goennemann, officially announced that EADS retires as the national 4-way team and offers the slots in the German "A-Kader" to the team members of Next Generation: Markus Bastuck, Dieter Schwarz, Dr. Jörn Thiele, Max Thiele. The German association (DFV), still has to approve this move.

Jens Goennemann confirmed that the EADS members, Olaf Biedermann, Jens Goennemann, Goran Meyer, Thomas Spielvogel and Marc "Euro" Ewert on camera, will continue in 8-way only. Veteran Thomas "Spieli" Spielvogel is the team captain of the EADS 8-way team.

Team speaker Jens Goennemann, founder of the EADS 4-way team, added that the future of the 8-way team will be based on the same principles as in 4-way: "We have always believed in continuity, and it has worked well for us. We will keep this 8-way line-up together for a longer time period and see how far we can go."

He could not provide details of the training plan at the moment. It is quite likely that the upcoming 8-way efforts will not exceed the previous efforts in 4-way. There will still be more training compared to the 2006 season. EADS and Next Generation did not even get close to the 100-jump mark before the team won the 8-way event at the DFV-Cup 2006 with a 14.4 average.

The steep progression of the new German EADS 8-way team in 2006 may promise more than team speaker Jens Goennemann has in mind at this point. The NSL News gave the new 8-way situation some additional thoughts and considered the international 8-way situation at the same time.

The 8-way event has been dominated by the three powerhouses, USA, France and Russia for a very long time. No other nation has won any 8-way medals since 1985 when Canada took the 3rd place in Yugoslavia. It surely does not look like this could change at any time soon.

However, fact is also that there are not many nations that focus much on the 8-way event. The logistical and financial challenges of forming an 8-way team and maintaining it are at least twice as difficult as for a 4-way team. The three 8-way powerhouses never really faced serious challenges in their medal positions. They only switched their positions within their triangle.

The difference between the 3rd and 4th place was still close enough once in a while to give other nations at least some hope for a slight chance. Australia missed Russia by nine points (11.7 - 10.8) in 1987 and again by ten points (15.3 - 14.3) in 1995.

Germany already had its own 4th places and missed France in the bronze medal position by 22 points (15.5 - 13.3) in 1997, then Russia by 41 points (18.6 - 14.0) in 2004. Both German 4th place in 1997 and 2004 were too far away for any hope, however, the Australian 8-way team could already see the tail lights in 1987 and 1995.

The chances of a potentially new medal contender depend on the situation in USA, France and Russia. All three countries have had ups and downs in their scoring charts over the years. The line-ups of the three powerhouses change, as well, and the re-building takes time and efforts.

A motivated national team could have the chance to break into the dominating triangle and steal a medal position with a good plan - and continuity. The strong performance level of the challenger would have to coincide with a weak year for one of the three powerhouses.

An 18.0 average would have been good enough to win 8-way bronze medals in 2001 and 2006. Both German 4-way teams, EADS (19.3) and Next Generation (19.5), have already posted meet averages in 4-way that indicate the skills level required to get to an 18.0 average in 8-way.

The other component for international medal success in 8-way is the continuity it requires to consistently deliver the necessary scoring level. It sounded as if team speaker Jens Goennemann sees the EADS priority of continuity as one of the strong qualities of the team.

He did not mention at any time that international medals would be on the EADS list of goals. However, the facts seem to speak for an even stronger German 8-way team to be expected in the future. FSC Remscheid brought the German 8-way level already up to the positions right behind the three top nations. EADS 8-way might have the chance to move it further up to the next level of 8-way competition.

The chances for the project might be even better if EADS continues with the support for the team. EADS stands for "European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company" and is one of largest corporations in the world. The next world meet will take place in 2006. EADS 8-way would have two years to get ready for the next opportunity to change the 8-way medal world.