Defying gravity
WIRE WALKER: NIK WALLENDA COMPLETES RECORDBREAKING WALK ACROSS A CITY’S SKYLINE
Famed wire walker conquers Chicago and makes his family proud.
Everyone has their area of expertise. And some folks being a little more “out there” than others keeps things interesting. Nik Wallenda’s passion is high wire. The first person to ever successfully traverse the Grand Canyon on a tightrope, Wallenda is the type of person who keeps people’s curiosity alive – a reminder that humans are capable of more than we know.
AsA seventh-generation tion member of the well-knownw Flying Wallendas family,f he began performing as a toddler and made his debut
professional tightrope walk
at 13. He has since recreated
the very same wa walk that took his great-g great-grandfather Karl Wallend Wallenda’s life in 1978, a
year before his birth. “He was walking between two buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He had to go down to the wire to grab on and fell to the ground,” Wallenda says.
“Karl is a huge inspiration in my life, probably the biggest. I do everything I do because of him. He’s the one who paved the road for me to able to do what I do.”
Setting the standard higher (literally) each time, Wallenda celebrates each new achievement with an even bigger challenge. In his most daring attempt yet, he
I live by three words: never give up
walked the skyline of America’s windy city – Chicago – untethered, blindfolded and on live television.
With the whole world watching, there was no room to slip up – or off. In the first half of the walk, he crossed two city blocks, from the iconic Marina City’s west tower to the Leo Burnett Building, more than 50 stories above the Chicago River and going uphill at a 15-degree angle. This changes the entire dynamics of wire walking. The second part of the record-breaking event and the blindfolded half of the challenge spanned from the Marina City’s west tower to the east tower.
“The Chicago walk came about because I was attracted to the city’s nickname, the Windy City,” Wallenda says.
“You’d think most wire walkers wouldn’t want to go there, but I did. I enjoy challenging myself. I enjoy pushing myself to the next level.”
So what does it take to be a tightrope walker? Wallenda looks to his faith.
I enjoy challenging myself. I enjoy pushing myself to the next level
Nik Wallenda
“My faith plays a huge role in my life, whether I’m walking wire or not. It’s really where I find my strength and it’s how I stay calm when I’m doing stuff like this,” he says.
“Whenever I am in any situation that is stressful, whether it be dealing with one of my teenaged kids or walking a wire, I always count on my faith to get me through. It’s hard for those who weren’t raised in my family to understand, but my great-grandfather said life is on the wire and everything else is just waiting. For our family, walking wire is life, and it is a normal thing for us to do. My faith is an extension of this life.”
Wallenda hopes this latest feat will inspire others to go after their dreams.
He concludes: “I live by three words: never give up and continue to inspire others to never give up. If I want them to push themselves, I have to be an example.”