Skydive world record broken as Amy Chmelecki gathers female sports leaders.
Amy Chmelecki has long been considered one of the world’s best, and a trailblazer for female skydivers. Recently she brought together more than two dozen other female jumpers and some of the best women in other fields for a two-day summit in Florida.
Joined by footballer Ashlyn Harris, former freestyle skier Grete Eliasson and wakeboarder Meagan Ethell, the four women lead a discussion panel surrounding female sports, and Chmelecki and the two-dozen skydivers also broke a world record for the most female vertical skydivers in one go. Here is all the information you need to know:
- The Fly Girls project was the brainchild of American skydiver Chmelecki, who has long been a voice for female solidarity, and used the summit to discuss such subjects as equal pay, boundaries and opportunities within sport, and female participation in sports such as skydiving.
- The summit took place on February 8-9, the visual climax of which was the skydiving record attempt, which Chmelecki estimated would take six attempts but was captured on the first jump.
- Of the summit and the record, she said: “This weekend was something that I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. When I first got on the team I imagined if Red Bull ever did project with all girls, get them together and then just shred. There's so few women in skydiving so when you're able to get us altogether it’s amazing. I feel so great about everyone’s performance. They flew amazing.”
- Other female sporting leaders got involved, including World Cup champion Ashlyn Harris, the goalkeeper for the US team. Harris was blown away by her fellow attendees: “These are a bunch of bad-ass women. You can see the passion in their face. I love to encourage people, which is what I like to do on a world stage.”
- Ex-pro freestyle skier Eliasson, now president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, was on hand for the summit, as well as 21-year-old four-time wakeboarding champion Ethell, who said: “To have all these women come together and try to complete something this big is a great opportunity for them and skydiving as a whole.”