Corinna
Schwiegershausen
Germany
·
Hang Gliding
Date of birth | 10 March 1972 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Bremen, Germany |
Age | 53 |
Nationality | Germany |
Career start | 1996 |
Disciplines | Hanggliding |
A secret that nobody knows? "I'm afraid of heights," says hang-gliding pro Corinna Schwiegershausen. Who would've thought?
Born and raised in Bremen, the young German fell in love with flying as a child, and that love never waned. After finishing her graphic design degree in Darmstadt, she moved to Munich to be closer to the good flying sites.
Schwiegershausen had already achieved widespread national success by the time she scooped her first world title in 1998, at the expense of American Kari Castle. Their constant attempts to out-perform one another blossomed into one of world sport’s great rivalries, as both women pushed the sport’s boundaries to bigger and greater limits.
Schwiegershausen got the better of her old adversary twice more at the World Championships in 2004 and 2006. She was also an integral member of the German women’s team that claimed its sixth successive World Championship gold medal in 2006. Corinna has since been crowned world champion in 2008, a year she also won the European Championships and 2013. She went on to win the Geman Open in 2014 and again in 2016.
In 2017, Schwiegershausen won the FAI World Hang Gliding Championship twice, and her team took third. She added two more first place victories to her collection in 2018 when she won the Quest Air Nationals and the Europameisterschaft.
When she's not wowing the crowds with her aerial trickery, Corinna works as a freelance journalist, graphic designer and flight attendant. She also instructs hang-gliding courses to pass on her expertise to a new generation of pilots.