If there's one passion that gets Fanny Hopmans out of bed, it's skydiving. As a member of the Dutch national women's team, she holds both the national and European women's records.
Fanny's fascination began at age 3, watching Skydive ENPC jumps near her home—their landing field just a kilometer away. She made her first static-line jump at 23, where the parachute deploys automatically. "You need to master the procedures and body position," she explains. From there, she progressed to thrilling freefalls.
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Her debut was underwhelming at first. "It happened so fast, and under the canopy, I wondered, 'Is that all?'" But as she gained involvement, the real excitement kicked in.
Skydiving has risks. "Once, I deployed my reserve chute because the main one wouldn't steer properly," Fanny recalls. Thankfully, it resolved safely.
Today, Fanny competes in formation skydiving's top class with three teammates. "We're experienced athletes with demanding jobs, training every three weeks in wind tunnels like City Skydive Utrecht or Indoor Skydive Roosendaal. Annually, we do a 2-3 day camp. We're eyeing the 2021 World Cup in Slovakia, pending COVID uncertainties."
Few sights rival their precision formations—truly spectacular.
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Images: Own, Raul Heys, Henny Wiggers
