posted Oct 1st, 2007 - Two new NSL-TV Airspeed videos of the USPA Nationals 2007 brings the NSL News back to the 8-way competition. The story on September 25 covered the 8-way battle between Italy and Germany in the last four years. The NSL News now takes a closer look at the whole international situation at the end of the 2007 season.

There is less than a year before the best 8-way teams in the world will all meet at the same time and compete for the FAI/IPC medals and for the 8-way Excalibur sword at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2008 in France. The national championships and the World Cups/World Meets are usually the only competitions for 8-way teams every year, while 4-way teams have many more opportunities to collect competition experiences.

The logistical challenges of training, managing and maintaining an 8-way line-up make it more difficult for teams to form and continue year after year. As a result, most of the trained teams are only the national teams of not too many countries in the world. The very top level of 8-way competition is out of reach for most of the 8-way teams.

In fact, all 8-way medals ever since the introduction of the current dive pool system in 1985 have been shared between three nations: USA, France and Russia. There was one exception at the World Meet in 1985 when Russia ended up in 4th place, and Canada won the bronze medals. It was the first appearance of a Russian Formation Skydiving team at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving, and Russia corrected the standings already in 1987. The records show that there are little chances for a change, and the situation looks very similar for the upcoming World Meet 2008 in France.

The US 8-way teams dominated the 8-way competition between 1985 and 1999. Russia seemed to take control over the 8-way competition after winning the gold medals in 2001 and 2003. However, the strong Russian line-up of 2003 discontinued, and Airspeed won the gold medals at the lower-scoring event of 2004 in Croatia.

France won the 8-way gold medals for the first time in history at the World Meet 2006 in Germany. It seems now as if it is France's turn to dominate this event for a while. The French 8-way team defended the top position successfully at this year's World Cup 2007 in Russia and has plans to keep 8-way Excalibur in France at least until 2010.

It looks good for the French 8-way team at the moment. The 20.4 average at the World Cup 2007 is the highest 8-way average of the 2007 season. Russia posted an 18.4 average at the same event. Arizona Airspeed won the 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals 2007 with an 18.9 average. France is already significantly ahead of the other two top contenders, and the same line-up will continue until September 2008.

It looks even better for France in 8-way considering additional circumstances. Russia's 8-way line-up at the World Cup 2007 was only recruited for the event. There was no indication in August 2007 that this team would continue until the World Meet 2008 in France.

Arizona Airspeed has already confirmed that the winning line-up of the USPA Nationals 2007 will not compete in France next year. Airspeed's 18.9 average is not the starting point for the new US national 8-way team. Knight Trax will represent the USA in France 2008, and the silver medalist posted a 16.8 average in September.

The current situation in the USA and Russia seems to confirm that France is in a very strong position that offers the opportunity to successfully defend the 8-way gold medals. However, four members of the French 8-way team (Guillaume Bernier, Mathieu Bernier, Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollet) will also compete in 4-way, which will require additional efforts and concentration.

The new US national 8-way team, Knight Trax, is confident that it will be able to catch up quickly. The French 8-way team did not show much progression between 2006 (20.5) and 2007 (20.4) as the raw numbers show. Airspeed's 8-way average of 18.9 was only based on a lot of experience and came without any preparation. The Knight Trax members perform on the same skills level and will probably not need much training to get to Airspeed's scoring level at the USPA Nationals 2007. One open question is how fast and steep the Knight Trax progression will continue after reaching the 19.0 level.

The other question is behind the progression of the French 8-way team from here on. The US team will probably not only have to reach the 20.5 average level. The French team will have at least a 21.0 average as the goal for 2008. Everything else would be a surprise.

Another interesting factor is the situation of the Italian 8-way team Ex3mo. The team showed great progression between 2006 and 2007 (14.8 - 16.8) and finished the 2007 season exactly on the same scoring level as the US team Knight Trax. Theoretically, USA and Italy begin their pursuit of World Meet medals from the same starting position.

It is also a fact that Russia won the bronze medals in Germany 2006 with a 17.3 average. Italy's 16.8 average is not far away from that scoring level at all. However, the 2006 scores were on a lower level than usual for the bronze medals. Russia won the 3rd place in 2004 with an 18.6 average, and France posted 19.3 for the 3rd place in 2003. The NSL News will follow up with 8-way information on the teams' road to the World Meet 2008 in France.