104-year-old Chicago woman becomes oldest skydiver in the world
A 104-year-old Chicago woman ditched her walker and broke a world record by being the oldest skydiver in history.
“Age is just a number,” Dorothy Hoffner told the Chicago Tribune.
The first time she went skydiving was when she was 100 years old, and USA Today reported she “had to be pushed out of the plane.” But this time, “she willingly and joyfully led the tandem 13,500 foot jump” in Ottawa, Illinois.
“Skydiving is a wonderful experience, and it’s nothing to be afraid of. Just do it,” she told NBC5 Chicago.
Guinness World Record still needs to verify the jump to make it official, but the previous record was set by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson from Sweden in May 2022, The Associated Press reported.
Former President George H.W. Bush also started skydiving at the ripe age of 90 years old, according to The New York Times.
What prompted the 104-year-old to go skydiving?
Hoffner befriended Joe Conant, a nurse who worked at the senior center, and he began to visit her once a week, the Times reported. During a dinner with her, he mentioned he was interested in going skydiving. It turns out, she was too.
“That sounds really interesting,” she told him, per the Times. “I think I want to do that.”
Later that year, the two friends went skydiving, and he told the Times that Hoffner “absolutely loved it.”
