The Skydiving Journey of a Lifetime: From Forged Signatures to Gold Wings – The Inspiring Story of Elizabeth Knorr

She forged her parents’ signature to make her first jump when she was 20, as the minimum age for the adventure was 21. She hasn’t stopped since.

“I love that moment when the parachute opens and I know everything is fine. I always open the parachute high so I can float around, enjoy the silence and just look at the ground,” she says.

“I just really like being up in the sky and flying like a bird, drifting around, watching everything below me. I think it’s very soothing to the soul.”

After several jumps at the age of 20, she was invited to join the US women’s skydiving team and compete in the international championships in 1960.

“It really encouraged me to keep going,” she says.

“My dream was to stand under the USA flag and hear the national anthem played at international events and win a gold medal.”

She met her husband, Malan Knorr, at an international skydiving competition. He was a member of the Yugoslavian team. They got married and went on camping adventures together, but soon after the wedding, Malan suffered a serious accident. Consequently, the joint jumping stopped.

She and her husband were married for 30 years until he died suddenly of a brain aneurysm at the age of 58 in 1997.

“We had 30 wonderful years of marriage filled with lots of joy, but this was my opportunity to start skydiving again,” she says.

In 2003, she did. Now, with the support of the United States Parachute Association (USPA), she is working to earn gold wings for 1,000 jumps.

“It’s a great feeling of freedom when you jump out of a plane, fly like a bird, and you’re alone in the sky,” she says.

Knorr has four grandchildren between the ages of 22 and 26.

“They’ve all jumped with me,” she says. “It’s wonderful to see their joy.”

2023-09-30 18:54:15
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