posted Jan 16th, 2007 - The NSL News story on 1 November 2006 had provided the last update from France. National coach and team manager Jerome David commented the World Meet 2006 from the French perspective. He also mentioned that the selection process for the new French Formation Skydiving delegation had not been completed by then. The NSL News promised to follow up as soon as new information would be available.

Jerome David now took the time to provide an update before he leaves France to attend the IPC meeting in Italy. He confirmed that the selection process has been completed. He had presented the plan for the next four years to the French skydiving federation, and it was approved.

Jerome David will continue as the official national head coach of Formation Skydiving competition. However, he will not be involved any longer with any technical coaching work. He had announced his future focus on the team management already at the end of the 2006 season.

His work as the head coach and manager has been very successful, as France won IPC's Patrick de Gayardon Trophy for the first time in history (2006 gold medals in 8-way, silver medals in 4-way Open and 4-way Women). However, the former 4-way world champion has even higher goals in mind, which require his full attention.

The French goals are actually set to an ultimate level. Jerome David plans to win all three sets of gold medals in 2010. He has not set the same goal already for the World Meet in 2008. There are too many personnel changes within the whole delegation, and he thinks that the new teams will probably not be ready early enough.

This does not count for the 8-way line-up until 2008. The French 8-way team is currently the strongest part of the French Formation Skydiving delegation after winning the gold medals last year in Germany. There is only a minor change, which will not weaken the team's performance at all.

8-way gold medal coach Erwan Pouliquen will now become an active team member. Damien Sorlin has other career plans. He will retire and take the alternate's position. Manu Sarrazin will continue as the 8-way team captain. Gold medal videographer Alex Pereira has other plans, as well, and will be replaced by Stephan Mistrot who was the alternate videographer last year.

The plan for the new 4-way Open Class line-up is similar to the French situation in 2003 when the 4-way members were also competing with the French 8-way team. Marin Ferre, Julien Losantos, Davide Moy and Erwan Pouliquen tried to win gold medals in 4-way and 8-way at the same time - and ended up with bronze in 8-way. Russia's 8-way team and Arizona Airspeed were in the way of the first double-gold success.

Arizona Airspeed members had already made their own efforts to accomplish the same goal. Jack Jefferies, Kirk Verner, Mark Kirkby and Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld won gold medals in 8-way and silver medals in 4-way in 1999. Neal Houston, Craig Girard, John Eagle and Mark Kirkby tried again in 2001 and ended up with gold medals in 4-way and silver in 8-way.

The official French 4-way line-up for 2007 and 2008 consists of four 8-way world champions: Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier, Julien Degen and Jeremie Rollett. Jean Baptiste Cugerone will film the team, 2003 world champion Marin Ferré will coach the team full time.

The French situation until the World Meet in 2008 looks similar to the Airspeed attempts in 1999 and 2001 and the French effort in 2003, and there is a theoretical chance that the 4-way members could win gold medals in both events. However,there are still differences compared to the previous attempts, which each had a different approach.

Jack Jefferies, Kirk Verner, Mark Kirkby and Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld were already the 4-way world champions of 1997 when they charged for double-gold in 1999. Airspeed missed the double-gold for the first time in Australia (lost by 6 points in 4-way, won by 2 points in 8-way).

The Airspeed situation was different in 2001. The 8-way line-up was identical, while the other half of the 8-way team of 1999, except Gary Beyer, now competed in 4-way at the same time (Craig Girard, John Eagle, Neal Houston, Mark Kirkby). The 8-way team came as the defending world champion, while the new 4-way line-up had its first appearance at a world meet in 4-way. Airspeed missed the double-gold just by an inch this time (won 4-way by 2 points, lost 8-way by 1 point).

The French situation at the World Meet in 2003 was another version of the double-gold attempt. France was neither a defending world champion in 4-way nor in 8-way. However, the 4-way line-up was very strong, and the French delegation had the advantage of competing on home turf in Gap. The first double-gold attempt by France still failed (won 4-way by 15 points, lost 8-way by 9 points).

The French situation for the next World Meet in 2008 is similar to Airspeed in 2001. Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier, Julien Degen and Jeremie Rollett will be defending world champions in 8-way, while they compete in 4-way at the same time. The 8-way line-up will also be almost identical with the 2006 line-up. This situation looks very promising, as the NSL News will add more information later on.

However, David Jerome does not seem to be very interested in the double-gold chances in 2008, as the plans for the following two years show. He seems to be more focused on triple-gold in 2010. Evidence comes with his plans for the phase after the end of the 2008 season when none of the team members will compete in both line-ups any longer. The NSL News will follow up with the French plans between 2008 and 2010 very soon.