RHODE ISLAND — The sky is truly the limit for Kim Knor.
She’s 86 years old and proving age is just a number after completing her 865th skydiving jump in Rhode Island on Sunday.
Knor is on a mission to finish 1,000 jumps to earn her gold wings from the U.S. Parachute Association.
“It’s an incredible feeling of freedom, when you get out of the plane, there’s no motor, it’s just you flying like a bird,’ said Kim Knor.
Knor says it’s like a homecoming to be flying over New England since she lived in Connecticut for several year and used to skydive in Orange, Massachusetts all the time.
That’s also where she won gold at the World Championships as one of the first women on the U.S. Parachute team.
“I always wanted to compete in some sport and stand under the American flag, hear the national anthem, and get a medal, any of the three,” said Knor.
She says she was inspired to start doing this when her uncle brought back a parachute after jumping out of a plane in World War II.
“And it ripped on the tail, so they gave it to him as a souvenir to take home and he came home and said all about this parachute jump out of a burning plane, and how this is so great, and from that point on, I always wanted to make a parachute jump,” said Knor.
So she started skydiving in 1959 at just 20 years old, and after taking a 37-year break to raise her family, she’s back at it!
“It’s one of the favorite things, I happen to have my health and the kids and grandkids, nobody needs me anymore, so I can actually totally retire and do what I like to do!” said Knor.
Her skydiving journey doesn’t end at 1,000 jumps.
After she reaches that goal, she plans to jump over the pyramids in Egypt.
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