It’s believed that about 1% of people have — at some point — gone skydiving. And just a fraction of a percent have gone more than once. So a person setting a goal of 1,000 jumps is pretty adventurous.
“Adventurous” is an apt word to describe 85-year-old Kim Knorr, who added three jumps this weekend to her ever-growing list en route to her Gold Wings, a service award for making 1,000 jumps. Less than 7,000 Americans can boast such a claim.
“Why jump out of a perfectly good plane,” some might ask.
“I’ve jumped on and off since 1959, when I started” Knor said during an interview at Skydive the Falls in Youngstown on Sunday. “But I took a pause for 37 years to raise the kids.”
There’s so much more to her story than that.
Knor’s skydiving journey began in 1959 when she forged her parents’ signatures so she could make her first jump. She then sold all her possessions and bought a one-way plane ticket so she could travel as a parachute enthusiast.
In 1962, she made history as a member of the first U.S. Women’s Parachute Team, which won gold at the Sixth World Parachuting Championships in Orange, Mass. Her soon to be husband, Milan, was on the Yugoslavian Men’s Skydiving Team during the same championship.
“He defected during that World Championship,” she said. “And I married him.”
Skydiving remained a crucial part of their life. Her became a parachute test jumper for Pioneer Parachutes — now Pioneer Aerospace — which was bought by SpaceX in 2023.
“He just wanted to jump and fly airplanes,” she said. Unfortunately, Milan, who began going by “Maxie” after defecting, got injured. “When his accident happened … the day after our first child was born, I was in the hospital. He was supposed to come and pick me up,” but a friend of his met her at the hospital instead. Maxie survived but their jumping-out-of-planes days were over.
Maxie died of an aneurysm without warning on July 7, 1997 at the age of 57 years old. Eventually the kids — they had two daughters — grew up and Kim was once again called to the skies. She took up the sport again in 2003.
Since 2003, she’s inched her way closer and closer to the goal of 1,000 jumps, adding other notches to her belt along the way, like being elected to the International Skydiving Hall of Fame in 2013.
She seems to be picking up the pace on her route to her Gold Wings. The octogenarian said she added 75 jumps to her resume last year and plans to add 175 this year. Her stint in at Skydive the Falls were jumps 672 (on Friday), 673 (on Saturday) and 674 (on Sunday.)
Skydiving isn’t exactly the cheapest hobby. So how does Knor afford it?
Jennifer Jones, a tandem skydive instructor, said that Knor’s jumps are being sponsored by different skydiving businesses — like Skydive the Falls — as she makes her way to 1,000.
Jones pointed out how important Knor is to the sport of skydiving, especially to women. The sport is heavily male dominated with women accounting for just 14 percent, according to the United States Parachute Association.
And, of course, at the age of 85, Knor proves that the sport is an option for not only women but anyone of nearly any age.
Knor expects to add another 175 jumps in 2025 and plans to make her 1,000th jump at AerOhio Skydiving in Ashland, Ohio sometime in 2026.
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