104 people, 11 minutes, and one massive diamond in the sky. Find out how an elite team of skydivers finally broke a world record that stood since 2007.
Taking to the skies isn't just about getting us from A to B quickly: the skies can also offer many forms of entertainment and thrills, from incredible, eye-catching air shows to adrenaline-fueled pursuits like skydiving. While the prospect of jumping out of a plane and entrusting one's life to a parachute is probably enough to put the fear of God into most of us, some skydivers, including Montana native and Air Force Captain Charlene Sufficool, take it to the next level.
They engage in a discipline called Canopy Formation, which involves sitting on each other's parachutes in flight to create a vertical stack of divers. In November 2025, Sufficool, along with 131 other skydivers from all across the world, came together in Florida to break an 18-year-old record for the largest parachute formation ever.
The previous record, set in November 2007, featured 100 skydivers, and the group's initial goal was to best it by building a 107-person canopy in the skies over Lake Wales. While Sufficool and her fellow skydivers didn't quite manage to hit their initial goal, the 104-person diamond formation they achieved on the fourth day of attempts was enough for a well-earned place in the record books.
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The journey to a new world record
As you might imagine, one does not just rock up to Florida and attempt to break an 18-year-old record. All divers who took part, including Air Force Captain Charlene Sufficool, underwent rigorous training to develop the necessary skills. Organizers held training camps globally across two years, with some participants, like Sufficool, attending multiple camps at their own expense.
All the training looks to have been worth it, though: not only did the skydivers set a new official record, they also broke past the 100-diver mark four other times, set three women's canopy world records, and even managed a 106-person canopy formation. Unfortunately, the latter did not meet the World Air Sports Federation's strict criteria for a record, and so the number to beat stands at 104.
The record-setting skydivers came from 20 countries, with participants coming from as far away as Australia. While some, like Sufficool, had aerial careers in some form or another — Sufficool, for her part, flew the legendary A-10 Warthog in Afghanistan — other participants led much more grounded lives. One of the 104 was a 60-year-old plumber from the U.K. (via The Westmorland Gazette), which just goes to show that you don't have to be in the supposed prime of your life to set a world record.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
Category: General Sports
