The World’s Oldest Skydiver Is From Texas

WWII veteran Alfred Blaschke, 106, from Georgetown, TX, became the holder of the Guinness World Record for oldest person to tandem skydive... twice. Let me explain.

Get our free mobile app

Back in 2020, old Al decided he wanted to skydive to show his support for his grandchildren graduating college.

Well, at 103, there were some concerns regarding his health and physical ability to leap out of a flying plane and plummet towards the ground from 14,000 feet... who knew?

To everyone's surprise, he pulled it off and landed safely after deploying his parachute. Now, it's important to note that this is a tandem skydiving record, meaning that he had an experienced professional guiding his jump, but the impressive magnitude of this still stands.

Alfred liked it so much, in fact, that he decided to do it again... three years later at age 106 in 2023.

The reason for this second jump was because the record was broken nearly a year before in 2022 from a 103-year-old in Sweden. But this second record-breaking jump from Alfred was not made alone.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott actually accompanied the veteran for his second jump in 2023.

I hope to be even a fraction as ambitious as Alfred is when I'm 103. I also take this as an important life lesson: if you want to shake hands with Gov. Abbott, just jump out of a plane...

You can see the full video from NBC News here: