Schoolcraft native Chloe Hurst, seated second from the right, was part of the team that won a gold medal at the 2015 U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships. The competition took place at Skydive Arizona, outside of Phoenix. Hurst’s team, Air Force Rendezvous, took the gold in the intermediate 8-way formation skydiving event.
The National Skydiving Championships is the country’s biggest, most prestigious skydiving competition, drawing more than 500 competitors from across the country for 10 days of breathtaking skydiving in multiple events, including formation skydiving, vertical formation skydiving, and artistic freestyle and freeflying.
In formation skydiving, teams of 8 exit the airplane more than two miles above the ground and race against the clock to form prescribed geometric formations in freefall before opening their parachutes. A videographer jumps with the team to capture the maneuvers for the judges on the ground.
Hurst, 21, is a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. She has completed nearly 500 skydives.