posted Sep 8th, 2023 - The aftermath of the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving will take a little while, and it is different compared to other FAI outdoor events in the past. There is more than only the traditional aftermath this year, which usually evaluates the results of any event as carefully as possible.

The outdoor competition at Skydive Voss was scheduled relatively early in the calendar year, which changes the relationship between the most relevant annual international events (world championship - world cup) and the national championships for the teams in the participating countries.

Many of the teams who competed at Skydive Voss return to their countries and follow up with their national championships. The balance between training and preparations for the two most important events of the year can be challenging, especially whenever the national championship also includes the qualification for the next world championship, where only one team is eligible per nation.

Germany's national outdoor championship was the first event right after the conclusion of the world cup in Norway. At least the 8-way qualification was supposed to be close, and it turned out to be be like that for most of the 10-round meet. The national 4-way teams (Airbus Illertissen Oceanside - Meltemi Oceanside) seemed to be in a safe domestic position before traveling to Norway. The two opposing 8-way teams (Airbus - Operation Adler) did not compete in Norway and concentrated only on the national qualification for the outdoor world championship next year.

23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		3,G,N,19		11,17,L		13,7,C		2,D,O,8		14,K,J,12		9,M,P,H		5,4,18		15,1,10		16,21,E		F,20,6		Total	Avg
1	GKXP8	US	27		22		19		19		20		24		24	-1	25	-1	23		25		228	22.8
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	18		18		16		13		16		20		16	-3	20		20		20		177	17.7
3	Prison 9	US	16		14		12	-1	11		12		13	-1	15		16		13		15		137	13.7
4	Mojo Annecy-Clermont	FR	15		11	-1	12		8	-1	10	-1	14		12		13	-1	13		13	-1	121	12.1
5	Ap8thy	UK	11		9		10		7	-1	10		10		10	-1	11		10		11		99	9.9
6	Bra Nok XP	US	12	-3	6	-2	10		7	-2	9		10	-1	11	-2	11	-1	13		6	-4	95	9.5
7	Deton8	UK	4		2		4		0		0		3		3	-1	2		3		3		24	2.4

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GKXP8 - Qatar Falcons at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving - Video footage courtesy of InTime/FAI/ISC

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The most common situation of a domestic qualification for the next FAI event is not the same across the world. There are countries where a national coach, together with the respective federation, selects the national teams and often even the team members. These national teams do not have to go through a qualification process and have the opportunity to prepare carefully only for the major annual FAI events.

One of the countries with the selection of the national teams instead of a qualification event is the new Formation Skydiving powerhouse from Qatar. The Tigers have been the national team in 4-way Open for over a decade, the Falcons in 8-way Open. Lions and Cheetahs are the farm teams who are supposed to develop future members of the national teams.

The Qatar teams enjoy the benefits of almost unlimited budgets and government support, and the four world-class coaches (Gary Smith, Jeremie Rollett, Luc Verstrepen, Andy Grauwels) and their teams are not facing any qualification pressure, even though the team members have to deliver performance to maintain their status. One result of Qatar's situation is the opportunity for coaches and staff to schedule their events according to the best balance between training and competition within their environment, and they do so.

German Outdoor Nationals 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		7,9,21		2,8,J		11,K,6		5,H,C,22		B,Q,O,1		14,15,3		A,4,10		16,13,D		F,20,19		N,E,17,G		Total	Avg
1	Qatar Falcons	QA	15		13	-1	19		18		21		19		20		21		16		12	-4	174	17.4
2	Operation Adler	DE	12		11		12	-2	13		14		13		16		14		13		14	-1	132	13.2
3	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	11		10		12	-1	13		15		13		15		9	-1	12		11	-1	121	12.1
4	Saar 8 SWDN	DE	7		4		9		7	-1	6		9		7	-1	7	-1	7	-1	8		71	7.1
5	LQ macht KO's	DE	4		2		2		4	-1	4		2	-1	5		4		3		2	-1	32	3.2
6	M8-Nix	DE	1	-2	2		2		3		2		3		4		4		3		3		27	2.7

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Qatar Falcons at the German Outdoor Nationals 2023 - Video footage courtesy of InTime/DFV

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Qatar Falcons, Tigers, Lions and Cheetahs all competed in Norway at the same event and then split up for their own specific aftermath. Lions and Cheetahs are now at Skydive Flanders in Moorsele, Belgium, to complete the next ten rounds of 4-way competition at the joint event venture of the Belgian and Dutch national championships.

The Qatar Falcons have already completed the next ten rounds at Germany's national outdoor championship, where they had the two best German 8-way teams as their opponents. Only one 8-way team is competing in Moorsele this week.

Qatar's national 8-way team won their second set of FAI silver medals, after the 2nd place at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 and the previous 3rd place in Australia 2018. The Falcons and their coach Jeremie Rollett benefit from the FAI exclusion of Russia's Formation Skydiving powerhouse, and France has not pursued 8-way medals since the last serious effort at the FAI Tanay Mondial, while the new GKXP8 lineup is still out of reach for the Falcons at the moment.

The Falcons finished just as far ahead of the two German 8-way teams as GKXP8 had distanced themselves from any other opponents in Norway, including the Falcons. They only allowed the new German 8-way champions, Operation Adler, to take advantage of four point deductions against the Falcons in Round 10. It was the only round that the Falcons gave away at the Fallschirmsportzentrum Saar last week. The Falcons will continue trying to find a way how to get closer to the U.S. team.