posted Feb 1st, 2007 - The NSL News story on January 16 provided an update from France. National coach Jerome Davide introduced the French Formation Skydiving competition line-ups of the next two years and also explained the plans until 2010. Four members of the current French 8-way world champions are the new national 4-way team, while the 8-way team continues with almost exactly the same line-up.

The same NSL News story compared the situation at the next World Meet in 2008 with three previous attempts of US and French competitors to win gold medals in 4-way and 8-way at the same time. France will have another opportunity to go after the double-gold in 2008. However, the goals for 2010 are different ones.

Jerome David's plans for the time period between 2008 and 2010 show that he does not seem to be very interested in the double-gold chances in 2008. He seems to be more focused on triple-gold two years later. The French 4-way and 8-way teams of the Open Class and the 4-way team in the female category are all expected to win gold medals at the World Meet in 2010.

The four 4-way members of the current 8-way line-up (Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollet, Guillaume Bernier, Mathieu Bernier) will be busy enough to train and compete in both events until 2008. Jerome David has a plan for the other three 8-way world champions, as well, while new member and player coach Erwan Pouliquen focuses on his job.

8-way team captain Manu Sarrazin and his team mates Clement Martin St Leon and Bruno Perin will prepare the next French generation of national Formation Skydiving competitors for the situation after the World Meet in 2008. They will be 4-way player coaches for the three new B-Team line-ups in 2007 and 2008 while training with their own 8-way team.

Jerome David selected the members of these three new 4-way line-ups (B1 - B2 - B3) already last year: Guillaume Bajolet, Patrick Boulongne, Julien Olek, Arnaud Mille, Charles Graveleau, Nicolas Coadic, Florian Thiebault, Florian Denonfoux, Thomas Perin.

The same nine new French top competitors will also be trained in 8-way for the next two years at the same time. This 8-way team will be the French B-Team in 2007 and 2008 and then replace the current world champion 8-way team after the World Meet in 2008. The new 4-way line-up with Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollet, Guillaume Bernier, Mathieu Bernier (Jean Baptiste Cugerone on camera) is expected to win the 4-way gold medals in 2010, while the new 8-way team would have to defend the French 8-way gold medals.

The members of the old and new 8-way team are aware of their upcoming challenges, as the last update on the team's website shows: "Hello everyone, here are the last news about the French teams linup. The '8France' team will stay quite the same as only Damien who has to deal with professional obligations, is replaced by Erwan Pouliquen. Erwan was already part of the team as a coach and alternate in the last 3 years. 4 of us are also doing 4 way (Mathieu, Julien, Guillaume and Jeremie). Alexx, after being elected the most valuable videographer in Gera, is also leaving the team to focuse on his professional activities. He is replaced by Stephane who was alesx's alternate in Gera. Of course, our main goal will be to keep the Sword but we know that we have a lot of work to do, as we are now 'the team to beat'."

The French national 4-way team in the female category has an almost complete makeover. Only Sophie Deremaux comes back from the line-up of 2006 and will lead the new team for the next four years. The French team was expected to win the gold medals already in 2006 and was surprised by a very strong performance of the British team Airkix.

Sophie Deremaux has Christele Askew, Manue Nicols and Françoise Simons in her new line-up, Fabrice Rieu will film the team. New team member Françoise Simons is the manager of the Aerokart wind tunnel in Paris. Polo Grisoni is the new full-time coach for the female 4-way line-up. He was a member of former French 8-way teams and won 4-way silver medals with France's 4-way team of 2006 at the World Meet 2006 in Germany and at the Malevsky Cup 2006 in Russia.

Jerome David has also added a second female line-up to the project. The B-Team consists of Berengere Duplouy, Isabelle Seel, Julie Levie and Amelie Tirmanto. The two female line-ups will train side by side, and coach Polo Grisoni will work with both of them.

Jerome David finished his update with a short summary: "The French 8-way team will not train a lot in 2007. So we need to keep focused on 8-way and manage it besides our 4-way project for 2008. Our goals are gold medals in 8-way and any sets of medals in 4-way Open and Female. The nine guys of the new B-Teams will run for the 8-way gold medals in 2010, while our 4-way Open and Female teams should then be mature enough to run for gold medals, as well. We have four years to catch three sets of gold medals in 2010 - this is our dream."