A 104-year-old woman from the US is set to become the oldest ever skydiver, after completing the 4,100 metre jump on Sunday.
Dorothy Hoffner from Chicago, Illinois, defied all odds to beat the previous Guinness World Record set in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson from Sweden.
Hoffner completed the remarkable feat at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, approximately 140 kilometres south-west of Chicago in northern Illinois.
“Age is just a number,” the 104-year-old said as she landed after the skydive, the Chicago Tribune reported.
On Sunday, Hoffner ditched her walker for the skydiving kit and insisted on leading the tandem jump. She seemed completely at ease as she dove out of the plane and flew in freefall in the sky.
The dive lasted for seven minutes, her textbook landing met with a cheering crowd.
“It was wonderful up there,” she told reporters.
“The whole thing was delightful, wonderful, couldn’t have been better.”
Although Guinness World Records still list 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson’s jump as the record for the oldest tandem skydiver, WLS-TV reported that Skydive Chicago are working to have Hoffner’s jump certified as the new record.
Hoffner, who turns 105 in December, said her next adventure could be a ride in a hot-air balloon.
“I’ve never been in one of those,” she said.
In 2018, Australian skydiver Irene O’Shea broke the world record as the oldest skydiver at 102 years old.
It was O’Shea’s third jump at the time, her first on her 100th birthday to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association SA, according to the Australian Parachute Federation. MND had taken the life of O’Shea’s daughter, inspiring her to become an active supporter for the charity.
In an episode of the ABC’s program You Can’t Ask That, O’Shea described her record-breaking tandem jump from 14,000 feet (4,267 metres) as a “remarkable”, “unbelievable” experience.
O’Shea passed away in 2022, aged 105 years and 356 days.