Veteran skydiver Kim Knor is on a mission to show that nothing can stop you from doing what you love.
At 84, Knor has taken on the challenge of skydiving 1,000 times to earn her Gold Wings from the . She’s already jumped over 580 times, using logbooks stretching back to her first dive in 1959 to track her progress.
For Knor, itap all about inspiring other female jumpers to take flight.
“I keep encouraging them to at least go out and try it; and if itap your thing, you might end up getting a job at a drop zone and be around these people all the time,” Knor said. “At most drop zones, everybody’s on a high, because they’re so happy to go up and jump.”
Longtime Denver resident Knor has a long history with the exhilarating air sport. After making her first jump at 20, she became a member of the inaugural U.S. Women’s Parachute Team in 1962. She was also inducted into the in 2013.
Knor explained that when she started her skydiving journey, most of her fellow jumpers were former military members, leading to a male-dominated field.
“I didn’t even jump with another woman until two years after I started jumping,” she said. “I was going to competitions all over the Midwest, and there just were no females.”
Knor has spent the last decade doing a couple of jumps each year, but decided to take things up a notch this summer. Since the beginning of June, she’s dived in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska. She plans to continue west to jump into Utah, Arizona and California.
“I have a choice of watching TV or sitting in front of a computer, or going out and jumping and traveling across the country,” Knor said.
On Saturday, Knor visited in Longmont — her “home drop zone” — to add a few more tandem dives to her logbook. Knor said she’s jumped at Mile-Hi around 50 times and enjoys visiting the facility because she can connect with family members in the area.
“In our family, (skydiving) is almost a bit of a rite of passage,” said Knor’s grandson Miller Crone, who traveled to Longmont on Saturday from his Parker home. “My sister and my cousins and I always talk about who’s jumping next, who’s jumping again and who’s making their first jump.”
John Norsen, another of Knor’s grandsons, came to Mile-Hi on Saturday to skydive for the first time. Despite having opportunities to try the sport before, he chose to wait until he could make his first jump with his grandmother.
“She’s always out there making me want to do stuff that pushes you out of your comfort zone,” Norsen said, calling Knor one of his role models.
The grandmother and grandson duo landed on the ground within a minute of each other, and Knor hugged Norsen before boarding the plane again for her next jump. The plan to convert another relative into a skydiving fan seems to be a success; the 21-year-old said he’d love to go again.
Knor was even recognized by some of her skydiving peers at Mile-Hi. Johnstown resident Becky Soper approached Knor in the hangar to say hello and wish her luck in her quest to get her Gold Wings.
“There’s not a lot of women in this sport, so to find someone who’s been in it for as long as she has is amazing,” Soper said.
Crone, who watched Knor smile as she parachuted down, said his grandmother’s passion teaches people that itap never too late to accomplish your goals.
“If itap important to you, you can find a way to do the things that you want to do at any point in your life,” he said. “And I think that she’s a living testament to that.”
