Texas Man Takes the Guinness World Record for Oldest Tandem Skydiver
When you think about extreme sports like cliff diving or sky diving, you kind of come to expect that the only people willing to do them are the young and the physically fit. These are intense activities, and even if you take something like skydiving, which doesn't require a lot of physical effort under normal circumstances, the adrenaline rush alone would be enough to overwhelm a weak heart... right?
Well, not for Alfred Blaschke, it wasn't. Despite having more than 100 years under his belt, the Texas man put himself in the record books as the world's oldest tandem skydiver for the second time!
There's only a select handful of people with a Guinness world record to their names- but the pool of people who've earned that same record twice is even smaller! According to @cbseveningnews, that's what Alfred Blaschke did when he reclaimed his "oldest tandem skydiver" record title at just about a month shy of his 107th birthday!
Taking Back a World Record
Blaschke first clinched the world record back in 2020 at the age of 103. According to the official Guinness World Records website, he made the jump to celebrate the college graduation of his twin grandsons. It was actually only the second time the proud grandfather had ever gone skydiving (he first went three years prior to celebrate his 100th birthday). Blaschke held onto his record with pride- until it was unceremoniously snatched from his hands.
In a cinematic plot twist, a Swedish woman named Rut Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson scored the oldest tandem skydiver title in 2022, also at the age of 103. Larsson discovered her love of paragliding, parachuting, and skydiving in her nineties, so working up to become the oldest woman (and at the time, oldest person) to skydive was a no-brainer.
However, Blaschke clearly has a competitive side, and wanted to get his skydiving record back. He made his official second attempt in the skies over Texas in November 27, 2023. It took some time for the Guinness people to ratify his record, but at last, Blaschke officially re-took his world record in May 2024!
You've gotta admire the gumption of someone who works to earn a world record twice- both times at the age of 100, might I add. And Mrs. Larsson, as far as I'm aware, still holds the title of the world's oldest female tandem skydiver, so she's still up there among the GOATs. Anyway, I think the moral of the story is clear: you don't have to stop being a thrill seeker after you celebrate your 100th birthday. If anything, that might just be the perfect time to get things started!
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