The Start of Her Journey: Domi Kiger
It’s easy to see ridiculously skilled and amazing humans absolutely crushing it at this sport and to forget that everyone started somewhere. In honor of the journey to grow and learn in pursuit of the passion of flight, we present to you our new series on the origin stories of some of our favorite lady legends of skydiving.
To kick off the series, we look at Domi Kiger’s start in the sport. Domi Kiger has over 8,800 jumps, is a World Champion, has broken six skydiving records, has been the French National Freefly champion three times, just opened a wind tunnel, and works as a full-time skydiver traveling the world.
Photo By: Red Bull
In her own words, here is Domi’s story:
I first expressed my interest in skydiving at the age of 12, which took my parents by surprise, as no one in my family had ever skydived, and I convinced my mom to take me to the nearest DZ to inquire. There, I was told by the DZO that I was too young and that I needed to wait to be 15 to be allowed to do my first jump. Waiting 3 years felt really annoying, but I didn’t have a choice. I went scuba diving instead and counted the days till I could explore the sky.
In the summer of 2000, being finally 15, my parents gifted me with a tandem jump over Mimizan. I fell in love instantly, with the plane ride, with the feeling of being in the sky, with the community of skydivers and what they represented of adventures and independence. The following summer, in 2001, I worked for a month in a pizzeria and went to spend it all in one week of AFF. My AFF was done in 2 days and 5 jumps. I was very eager, unafraid as a teenager can be, and definitely hooked. I knew from the start, I wanted to become good at flying.
Domi at 17 but already with about 150 jumps
Not being a very popular kid at school, it was completely wonderful to find a community that I felt I could be a part of, where I was welcomed with open arms, and where I felt I could find a place. Over the following 7 years, I mostly skydived during the summer months, working at the DZ first running the cafeteria, then packing. During the year I was still going to school (high school at first, then university), so I made every summer an immersion in the flying world. Skydiving was my thing, skydivers were my people. The certainty only grew with years passing.
Domi at 22 years old with around 500 jumps
My life took a turn in 2008 when I went to Eloy for 3 months to smash some jumps and tunnel, in preparation for my first year of freefly competition and the creation of team Kristal. But that is another story!
Photo By: Kian Bullock
