Zhang Shupeng appears untroubled as he surveys the jagged mountains of a national park in central China — before diving headfirst off a cliff to bullet down at 230kph.
Any potential disaster is averted when he opens a parachute and drops gently to the ground — Asia’s top wingsuit athlete in his element.
After China’s decades-long focus on rigorous, state-controlled training in established sports, aimed at winning medals and national glory, Zhang is among a different breed of Chinese sports star that is inspiring the next generation.
Photo: AFP
Zhang’s sport — one of the most extreme in the world — sees practitioners jump into the void from a mountain, an airplane or a helicopter wearing a flexible, wing-shaped suit that allows “human flight” in the form of a high-speed glide.
“When I walk up to the top, my pulse is racing, but during the flight, I am super-serene,” 34-year-old Zhang said with a smile, seconds before jumping off Tianmenshan in Zhangjiajie.
Custom-made in the US, his red Batman-style suit cost more than 70,000 yuan (US$10,700) and is emblazoned with a picture of the Great Wall, a symbol of his country.
Photo: AFP
Unlike the rest of the world, where many athletes are stuck at home due to restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, China has gotten COVID-19 almost completely under control — which means that Zhang could return to training.
During a jump, the air rushes into the suit, which becomes rigid and generates lift, allowing him to glide in a more horizontal trajectory.
“I feel like a bird,” said the former world paragliding champion, who has carried out more than 3,000 wingsuit flights. “It becomes one with my body. By changing my posture, I can turn, speed up or slow down.”
Wingsuit jumping arrived in China in 2011, when US star Jeb Corliss glided through the “Gate of Heaven,” a 130m-high natural arch on Tianmenshan, in front of local TV cameras.
Zhang attended the first edition of the world championship the following year, held at the same location, and was hooked.
He left China to train in Europe and the US, and by 2017 was among the best in the world.
Wingsuit jumping is a modern sport, unencumbered by the bureaucratic pressures of mainstream events, such as swimming or gymnastics in communist-led China.
“We are moving toward more and more openness,” Zhang said. “The current environment in China allows and supports the emergence of sports, which give more space to the personality of the athletes. It is my dream to make the image of Chinese athletes cooler.”
The sport inevitably comes with risks, including soaring too close to a cliff edge or a sudden strong gale throwing the jumper off course, but Zhang is sanguine in the face of danger.
“There is no dangerous sport,” Zhang said. “There are just dangerous people, who want to go beyond their capabilities or challenge themselves with every jump.”
Despite his assertion, several wingsuit athletes are killed each year, including a US jumper who died in the Swiss Alps in September.
Zhang, who is married and has a young son, said that his family supports him in his daredevil career choice.
“With my experience in paragliding, they know that I know how to keep myself safe... I’m not going to do anything rash,” he said.
Despite no competitions this year, because of the pandemic, Zhang considers himself lucky compared with athletes still confined by restrictions elsewhere in the world.
“When the weather is nice, I can come to train here,” he said, smiling. “I must be the happiest wingsuiter on the planet right now.”
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