Meet the 85-year-old Michigan skydiver going for 1000 jumps

Michigander Kim Knor is on a mission to get to 1000 skydive jumps and earn her USPA Gold Wings. And enjoy her 80s.

Today, the iconic skydiver will be at iSkydive Detroit in Fowlerville, Michigan, adding another notch in her belt. She expects to have her 1000th jump by 2026, and has visited Charlevoix and Traverse City in her trip.



With 545 jumps already in her log book, Knor began traveling in May last year to any Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia dropzones willing to support her goal. She has done 20 tandem jumps since then, and while the pioneer has many stories to share, her journey has been a full of twists.

Her first jump was in 1959 and by her 10th jump she was doing turns in free fall and practicing style and accuracy that led to her becoming a competition parachutist.

She went to the national level in the early 1960s and began training for the first US Women’s Team in Orange, Massachusetts. The hard work paid off. Knor, along with her three team mates, received the Gold Metal at the 1962 World Championships.

Knor continued skydiving and traveled to 37 countries around the world over the next few years. Back in the U.S. in 1966, she was reunited with her future husband Milan Knor, whom she had met at the World Championships. They married four months later and started a family.



Knor continued jumping with plans of another Women’s US Team competition, however in 1967 Milan suffered severe injuries test jumping a Parawing for Pioneer Parachute Company. The three years it took for Milan to recover put skydiving on the back burner. By then another daughter was born and Knor says the next 30 years were consumed with family life.

When Milan died of a sudden aneurysm in 1997, Knor moved to Denver to be close to both her daughters. There, she rekindled old friendships and visited Tampa, Florida for the second reunion of the Pioneers of Sport Parachuting, prompting Knor to get recertified. She continued jumping solo until she turned 72, but continued tandem.

Now Knor has been inducted into the International Skydiving Hall of Fame and continues to be an active participant with the museum events and the Pioneers of Skydiving celebrations.

All photos supplied.