Chinese skydiver brings childhood dream to life

The file photo shows that Yu Yin is jumping out of an airplane for skydiving in Chicago in June, 2016.[Photo/Xinhua/courtesy of Yu Yin]

LOS ANGELES - Like almost every kid, Yu Yin had a dream to fly like a bird when she was nine-year-old.

She now lives out her childhood dream. Stepping out of an airplane at high altitude, jumping out, and flying free in the sky have become the daily life of Yu, a professional skydiver and skydive judge.

Eight years ago, Yu, a 22-year-old student from the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin first touched the U.S. soil, with an initial plan of going to a good university, graduating and landing a job with promising prospects.

Also in the same year, her childhood dream led her to go skydiving for the first time. After landing, Yu did not yell, jump or tweet. Instead, she turned back and asked her instructor: "How can I just be like you to jump alone?"

Fast forward to 2016, Yu has skydived for more than 760 times and grows from a newcomer to a D-license skydiver, AFF Instructor of the United States Parachute Association, and a national skydive judge in the United States.

This year, she quitted her managerial position at a world leading electronic manufacturing company, and devoted all her time to skydiving.

"When I was a kid, I always feel like when you see the happiness of fish, you can learn how to swim; when you know the happiness of horse, you can learn how to run; but when you are jealous about the happiness of bird, what you can do? And later on, when I grew up I know I can skydive," Yu told Xinhua.

"That's the way you have wings, so when I came to the United States, that's the first thing I want to try," she said.

The file photo shows Yu Yin is doing the wing-suit flying.[Photo/Xinhua/courtesy of Yu Yin]

In 2011, Yu got a second place in a national skydiving championship in the United States. After that, she was favored by a chief judge of a U.S. skydiving team, and was invited to attend a national judge selection test.

Without making a single misjudgment during the two-day test, she entered the team of national judge, becoming the youngest and the only Chinese judge in history.

"I judge over 300 games every year, and now I am a director of Artistic Creation at National Skydiving League," she said.

To most of people, skydiving is an activity with danger and unpredictability. But for Yin, it gives her some incredible experiences.

Once she was traveling to Arizona, she found there were many hot air balloons and the idea of jumping from a hot air balloon just struck her.

She came over to the owner of the air balloons and asked for his permission. After staring at Yin for almost one minute, the stern-looking owner said: "The whole air balloons trip is 150 dollars, but I can charge you 75 (dollars), because you don't get down with us."

As the air balloon climbed around to 5000 feet (around 1530 meters), she started to climb out. The other eight travelers inside were stunned, and a girl looked at her anxiously, yelling to her "What are you doing?"

Those travelers praised her bravery after knowing that she would do a professional jump.

She joked with them. "I think you are a little bit braver, because you can go so high without a parachute."

Yu took a lot of pleasure from challenging herself in the sky. She broke the state record of Illinois with other 34 female skydivers in 2013. They together built a big cross-shaped formation in the sky during the free fall.

Recently, she had her new goal: breaking a world female record for the exit altitude around 35,000 feet (about 10,600m).

"In the coming year, I probably do this in the summer time. So during this period I will have a lot of training, including the body training, skydive skills training and air-pressure training as well," she said.

"In the past weekend, I have jumped out of airplanes 28 times. I really want to break this record and want to bring this to the world that female skydivers can do this too," Yu said.