104-Year-Old Woman Skydives to Break World Record

Quick Smiles:

• 104-year-old Dorothy Hoffner skydives in Illinois, aiming to break the world record.
• She first skydived at 100 and left her walker behind for this jump.
• Next adventure? Hoffner considers a hot-air balloon ride.

Dorothy Hoffner, a 104-year-old Chicago woman, hopes to be certified as the oldest person to ever skydive. She left her walker on the ground and made a tandem jump in northern Illinois at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, about 85 miles southwest of Chicago.

“Age is just a number,” she told a cheering crowd after landing safely.

The current Guinness World Record for the oldest skydiver was set in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson from Sweden. Skydive Chicago is working to have Guinness World Records certify Hoffner’s jump as a record.

Hoffner first skydived when she was 100. This time, she left her walker behind and was helped up the steps to join others waiting inside a Skyvan plane.

“Let’s go, let’s go, Geronimo!” she said after being seated. Unlike her first skydiving experience, when she had to be pushed out of the aircraft, Hoffner insisted on leading the jump from 13,500 feet, tethered to a U.S. Parachute Association-certified instructor.

She looked calm and confident as the plane’s aft door opened, revealing the landscape below. Hoffner shuffled toward the edge and leaped into the air, performing a perfect forward roll before flying stable in freefall. The dive lasted seven minutes, including her parachute’s slow descent to the ground. Upon landing, friends rushed in to congratulate her, and someone brought over her red walker.

When asked how it felt to be back on the ground, Hoffner said, “Wonderful. But it was wonderful up there. The whole thing was delightful, wonderful, couldn’t have been better.”

The lifelong Chicago resident, who turns 105 in December, is already considering her next adventure: a hot-air balloon ride.

“I’ve never been in one of those,” she said.

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