Women overcome fears, gain confidence through extreme sport

SYDNEY - Heather Swan admits skydiving used to terrify her - it took her about 50 jumps before she stopped feeling sick to her stomach.

But as she sweeps back her long blonde hair to clap on a fire-engine red helmet and walks toward the small plane which she will shortly jump from at about 3,900 meters, the 49-year-old exudes excitement.

"I think women find these sports more scary than men to start with and that was definitely my experience - I was very afraid," she laughs.

Swan now has some 800 skydives to her name and must be one of the few grandmothers in the world who BASE jumps, a more extreme sport in which divers leap from tall structures - Buildings, Antennas, Spans and Earth (cliffs).

Such is her commitment she earned the world record, with her husband Glenn Singleman, for the highest BASE jump (exit point) after they leapt off Mount Meru at an altitude of 6,604 meters in the Indian Himalayas in 2006.

Swan believes that challenging her fears has made her more confident and that skydiving, once the preserve of ex-military males, is empowering more women like her as they become increasingly involved in the sport.

"I've seen women who only ever did one jump, one tandem jump ... and it had a transformative effect on them," she explains.

Swan herself is little different, taking up skydiving after turning 40 and meeting Singleman. She quit her management consulting job and is now a fixture in the community.

But she says she still sometimes feels the sting of those who question why a woman would want to skydive or BASE jump.

"It's intriguing that people will often say to me, 'Oh how can you do that, you've got children' - although my children are well and truly grown up - and yet I've never heard anyone say that to Glenn. And yet he's a father.

"I think there's still that entrenched belief that women, particularly mothers, shouldn't do what is perceived as risky sports. It's very old-fashioned.

"I think the most important thing you can give your children is a strong sense of self and a strong sense of what is it that I want to do with my life, and go after it."

Susie McLachlan, on the other hand, was born into skydiving. Her mother may have made a jump while pregnant with Susie and she herself admits "it's in my blood". She did her first tandem with her dad when she was 17.

But McLachlan, 37, realizes not every woman is supported in their choice to skydive and a few years ago she formed Skysisters, a group which aims to encourage, support, motivate and challenge female skydivers of all levels.

The group holds conventions which attract skydiving women from around the world and this year's event saw the women start their days with a yoga session and complete jumps wearing glamorous fashions and lingerie.

Swan, who is a member of Skysisters, believes it's a great organization for "encouraging young women to move into the sport safely and responsibly".

McLachlan, who has a 3-year-old daughter, says she faces questions all the time about why she still jumps, and believes it could be a factor in why females are so outnumbered in the sport.

Agence France-Presse