posted Jul 6th, 2023 - Double-gold attempts have been a topic for the NSL News ever since French national coach Mathieu Bernier accomplished this "mission impossible" in Menzelinsk 2010. He won FAI World Championship gold medals in 4-way Open and 8-way Open at the same event.

It was unusual, as he was the only French competitor who participated in both events. It has been more common that a whole 4-way team is a part of a national 8-way team to pursue the same goal. Even Mathieu Bernier had tried this before, together with his 4-way team mates Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollett and his brother Guillaume Bernier, with Fabrice Rieu on camera. They won the 8-way competition in Maubeuge 2008 and finished one point short of Arizona Airspeed's Odyssey lineup (Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Andy Delk, Mark Kirkby, Steve Nowak on camera) in 4-way Open.

The logistics and the financial situation at the actual world championship competition seem to be easier if the national 8-way team has the complete national 4-way team in the lineup. In fact, it is nothing unusual that the best 4-way teams also recruit an 8-way lineup for the national championships and then win both events.

Sometimes, the national double-gold winners then even travel to the next world championships and compete in both events. However, competing for medals in both events at a world championship, or even for gold medals, is a different story, as the world's most experienced competitors pointed out in previous interviews and updates with the same topic.

FAI World Outdoor Championship 2010			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		3,21,N	6,20,9	E,G,17,5	K,16,2	12,C,22	B,D,M,1	7,15,J	13,L,P,11	4,18,O	10,14,19	Total	Avg
1	France	FR	25	19	16	21	22	25	18	19	23	15	203	20.3
2	Golden Knights	US	23	17	18	20	22	27	20	17	21	11	196	19.6
3	Barkli	RU	20	19	16	17	22	20	18	19	20	14	185	18.5
Rank	4-way Open		10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	21	22	56	20	22	24	22	24	40	26	277	27.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	21	53	23	20	24	23	25	40	23	274	27.4
3	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	21	56	21	19	21	23	22	41	21	264	26.4

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Mathieu Bernier in 4-way and 8-way at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2010

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It might be healthier for the budget of the national teams at a world championship if the delegation is smaller, while still covering the same three events of horizontal Formation Skydiving competition. Mathieu Bernier tried this approach as a national coach at the FAI Tanay Mondial. He had almost the complete 4-way Women lineup (Christine Malnis, Sophia Pecout, Gaelle Giesen) in the 8-way lineup.

It was another very close call. The French 8-way team lost by one single point in Tanay, the 4-way Women team by two. France left Russia with double-silver instead of double-gold. His limited French budget did not even allow him to continue recruiting a new strong 8-way team, and he dropped this category by leaving it open for any other interested French 8-way teams ever since.

It seemed to become easier for any delegation to win double-gold when the 4-way Women event was added to FAI/ISC's world championship format in 2001. The 4-way Open Class competition has been extremely competitive on the top level for many years, while the gold medals in 4-way Women were in reach on a significantly lower scoring level. Mathieu Bernier saw this opportunity in 2020/2021 and recruited the 4-way Women lineup as a part of the 8-way team.

Even the 8-way Open/4-way Women combination is difficult enough, as France experienced this challenging option at the Tanay Mondial in 2021. There have been no new efforts to copy this approach, even though XPGK8 and XPG4 member Jeana Billings has a very good chance to win two gold medals at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 and in Israel 2024.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 1987			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	16	11	10	13	13	14	14	15	13	-	119	13.2
2	France	FR	14	10	10	12	13	13	16	15	14	-	117	13.0
3	Russia	RU	13	9	9	10	12	13	14	14	11	-	105	11.7
Rank	4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	TAG Team	FR	13	13	14	16	13	14	14	13	12	12	134	13.4
2	Golden Knights	US	13	10	11	16	12	14	14	12	13	13	128	12.8
3	Amadeus	AT	12	11	11	15	11	11	13	12	11	11	118	11.8

The double-gold attempts began in Brazil 1987 when the Golden Knights competed for the United States in 4-way and 8-way. Team captain Andy Gerber's 8-way lineup included the Golden Knights 4-way team. Only the French TAG Team stopped the Golden Knights from accomplishing the first double-gold. The French team won by six points, and the Golden Knights won their first 8-way gold medals by two points over France. It was the beginning of the decade of Golden Knights 8-way dominance in the world, with six consecutive sets of 8-way world championship gold medals.

The U.S. Army must have realized that it had became next to impossible to win gold medals in both events, as they switched back and forth between the two events in the following years. They had an opportunity after the introduction of 4-way Women in 2001. The Golden Knights team in this new event eventually won FAI gold medals in Ottawa 2016 where the U.S. Army's 8-way team won their next gold medals. However, the lineups of the two Golden Knights teams were separated from each other without any overlapping. Jennifer Davidson, 4-way Women world champion of 2016, was recruited for the next Golden Knights 8-way lineup in 2017 and won her second FAI gold medal two years later in Australia 2018.

Then Paraclete XP's 8-way team took over the top spot in the United States and won their first FAI world championship gold medals in August 2021. Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon continued with XP8 and won again a year later in Eloy, while they competed with XPG4 in 4-way Women at the same event and finished 3rd. Only Jeana Billings will try to turn the gold/bronze combination into gold/gold next year in Israel, and the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 will be the coming test event.

There have been more double-gold attempts after Golden Knights in 1987 and France in 2008 before Mathieu Bernier succeeded in 2010. The NSL News will continue to cover this topic.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		12,A,16		18,15,O		1,F,E,C		17,B,14		10,2,20		21,11,G		J,5,19		L,M,K,7		D,8,4		3,13,Q		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	31		25		26	-1	22		20		22		19		26		24		24	-1	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	-1	20	-1	25		18		16		19		17		23		19		20		199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23		19		25		17		14	-1	16		16		21		20		19		190	19.0
Rank	AAA Class		12,A,16		18,15,O		1,F,E,C		17,B,14		10,2,20		21,11,G		J,5,19		L,M,K,7		D,8,4		3,13,Q		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21		21		30		20	-2	17		19		24		35		20		17	-2	224	22.4
2	French Girls	FR	21		18		30	-1	23		17		18	-2	24		34		18	-1	14		217	21.7
3	NFTO	UK	17		15		21		19		13		16		18		26	-1	17		13	-1	175	17.5

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Golden Knights in 8-way and 4-way Women at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016

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