

Four-year-old skydiver leaps for record books CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Reuters) -- The parents of Toni Stadler hope he has leaped into the record books by becoming the youngest person to skydive, at the age of four. "We are sure he is the youngest skydiver in South Africa and probably in the world," Toni's mother Daniela Busatta told Reuters. Toni's tandem parachute jump took place at the Cape Parachute Club, 25 miles north of Cape Town, on Oct. 27, five days before his fifth birthday. The family, from Essen in Germany, spend about nine months a year in Cape Town where Toni's father Christian Stadler uses hypnosis to help athletes recover from injury and enhance their performance. "We have been skydiving for four years and recently Toni started asking if he could jump too," Daniela said. "We did not make him do it. He made us let him." The youngster was strapped to jump master Paul Lutge's chest as they leaped out of their single-engined plane 10,000 feet above the earth, freefalling for half a minute before opening the parachute. "I would like to do it again, but next time without the somersault as we jump out of the plane. It was fine without the somersault," Toni said in German translated by Daniela. What did he enjoy most about the jump? "Seeing Robben Island so clearly," he said, referring to the prison where former South African President Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years behind bars for opposing apartheid. Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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