| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing  United States | ||
| Women's Parachuting | ||
| World Championships | ||
 | 2000 Toba, Japan | Overall Individual Style and Accuracy |
Cheryl Stearns (born 14 July 1955 in Albuquerque, New Mexico [1] ) is an American skydiver.
She won the bronze medal in Women's Overall Individual Style and Accuracy at the XXV World Parachuting Championships in Japan in 2000.
Stearns made her first parachute jump in 1971 at the age of 17 in Coolidge, Arizona. [2] [3]
In 1977 she became the first female member of the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army's elite parachute team. She served two three-year tours. [4] She served two active duty hitches with the Golden Knights in her military career. [5] She retired from the army after 29 years of service as a master sergeant.
She earned a bachelor of science in aviation administration and a master of aeronautical science degrees from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University while managing both her military career and competitive skydiving. [6]
Stearns began breaking world records and parachuting competitively early in her career, winning her first U.S. National Championship in 1977. [7] [8] She would go onto win the gold medal in the category "Overall, Women" at the World Championships in 1978 and 1994. [9] She also holds the record for most parachute jumps made in a 24-hour period by a woman - 352 jumps from November 8–9, 1995. [10]
She began flying for Piedmont Airlines in 1986, which later became part of US Airways and then American Airlines. [2]
In the early 2000s, Stearns was involved in the StratoQuest project, which endeavored to break Joseph Kittinger's long-standing record for the highest altitude parachute jump ever, with a jump from at least 110,000 feet. [11] The space diving project was put on hold while attempting to find sponsors for the jump's $6.5 million budget. [12] By 2008 the project budget had risen to $8 million and was put on hold. [13]
She holds the record for the most total parachute jumps made by a woman - 21,000 jumps as of June 14, 2019. [14] By 2023, she had made over 22,000 jumps and has over 26,000 flying hours. [6]
In 2014, while preparing for her 20,000 parachute jump, Stearns was hit by a car while riding her bike. [15] She suffered a traumatic brain injury, which had a wide ranging impact on her memory and cognitive function. It took two years and one week after the accident for Stearns to recover her medical certification to fly. [16] She retired as a commercial pilot in 2019. [17]
| Date | Type of Record | Performance | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 May 1998 | Accuracy Landing with 0.03 metre disc | 6 consecutive landings on dead center + 1 cm | [18] |
| 20 Jun 1994 | Lowest Single Round Score | 6.63 sec | [19] |
| 02 Jul 1986 | Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc (group of 8) | 2.88 m at the 2nd round | [20] |
| 10 Nov 1984 | Night / Individual records, Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc | 0,03 m at the 14th round | [21] |
| 15 Nov 1982 | Night / Individual records, Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc | 0,01 m at the 12th round | [22] |
| 14 Nov 1982 | Day / Individual records, Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc | 0.02 m at the 16th round | [23] |
BASE jumping is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend safely to the ground. "BASE" is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs). Participants exit from a fixed object such as a cliff, and after an optional freefall delay, deploy a parachute to slow their descent and land. A popular form of BASE jumping is wingsuit BASE jumping.
Freeflying is a skydiving discipline which began in the late 1980s, involving freefalling in various vertical orientations, as opposed to the traditional "belly-to-earth" orientation. The discipline is known to have originated when Olav Zipser began experimenting with non-traditional forms of bodyflight. Zipser founded the FreeFly Clowns as a two-person competitive team with Mike Vail in 1992. He was joined by Omar Alhegelan, Charles Bryan, and Stefania Martinengo in 1994. The FreeFly Clowns are also credited with opening the first school to teach freeflying, The First School of Modern SkyFlying.
Wingsuit flying is the sport of skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit called a wingsuit to add webbed area to the diver's body and generate increased lift, which allows extended air time by gliding flight rather than just free falling. The modern wingsuit, first developed in the late 1990s, uses a pair of fabric membranes stretched flat between the arms and flanks/thighs to imitate an airfoil, and often also between the legs to function as a tail and allow some aerial steering.
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Similar to skydiving, space diving is the act of jumping from an aircraft or spacecraft in near space and falling towards Earth. The Kármán line is a common definition as to where space begins, 100 km (62 mi) above sea level. This definition is accepted by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which is an international standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics. The United States Air Force uses 50 nautical miles to award astronaut wings.
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