Thomas
de Dorlodot
Belgium
·
Paragliding
Date of birth | 20 June 1985 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Brussels, Belgium |
Age | 41 |
Nationality | Belgium |
Career start | 2001 |
Disciplines | Paragliding Accuracy / Paragliding Aerobatic |
Aerial adventurer Tom de Dorlodot is happiest with his feet well and truly off the ground, which makes sense seeing as he’s one of the world’s most talented aerobatic paraglider pilots.
Tom always had a fascination for all things airborne, however his love was reinforced at the age of 15 when he was finally able to see what the world looked like from above on his first paragliding flight.
An early record-setter
With the young Belgian’s hunger for adventure fuelled, the expeditions started coming thick and fast. In 2008, he became the first paraglider pilot to fly over Machu Picchu. No sooner had he set foot back on the ground did he look to the skies again for a new challenge. The following year, he set the world distance record for his flight from Brussels to Istanbul.
A regular participant in the Red Bull X-Alps event, Tom was the youngest pilot to compete in 2007, 2009 and 2011. “Red Bull X-Alps represents everything I like: adventure, friendship, strong emotions and pushing it to the edge,” said Tom.
New horizons
In 2012, he started up SEARCH Projects, the goal of which is to travel the world in search of new adventures and challenges and produce documentaries about them, emphasising each country’s beauty and habitat from a paragliding angle. So far, Tom has travelled to regions such as Africa, South America, Pakistan, Tahiti, the Tuamotus and the Marquesas in the Pacific Ocean.
As one of the most consistent Red Bull X-Alps competitors, Tom continued his streak through the late 2010s and early 2020s. In 2022, he completed a 120km pioneering free flight around some of the world's highest peaks in the Karakoram range.
Tom's momentum was temporarily halted following a severe snow kiting accident in 2024, which led to complex medical complications requiring nine separate surgeries. Due to the lengthy recovery and inability to train, he was forced to pull out of what would have been his milestone 10th Red Bull X-Alps race in 2025.