ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — Kentucky has a new state record holder boasting the most skydives in a single day. Mike Bratcher successfully reached his goal of skydiving 100 times in a day, breaking the previous state record by 20 jumps.


What You Need To Know

  • Air Force veteran Mike Bratcher broke the Kentucky state record for most skydives in a day Monday

  • Bratcher jumped 100 times in a 14-hour period, beating the previous record of 80 jumps in a day

  • Bratcher donated money he raised leading up to the event to the Disabled American Veterans Radcliff chapter

  • He also collected 100 teddy bears along with donations for the Elizabethtown Police Department’s Shop with a Cop program and took each of the bears along on one jump

Bratcher planned Monday’s record-breaking event in celebration of his 60th birthday, which is in December. He’s a retired Air Force veteran who served several years as a military free fall instructor and now teaches civilians to sky dive on the weekends.

Monday’s record-breaking event took an entire army of friends and family members helping Bratcher. A team worked to pack parachutes over and over behind the scenes, while two separate crews helped Bratcher take his used parachute off when he landed and step into his new one before running back to the plane.

Each of his jump cycles only took about six-and-a-half minutes.

Every couple of hours, Bratcher got around a three to five-minute break. He also had to break for a little more than an hour due to dangerously strong winds during the middle of the day.

Still, he completed 100 jumps, starting at about 6:30 a.m. and finishing up a little after 9 p.m.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Bratcher said after landing his last jump. “I mean, it wasn’t me—it’s everybody that’s here. This was not an individual thing.”

“It was 100% team effort,” he added. “I mean, all I did was open the door and fall out.”

Leading up to Monday’s event, Bratcher fundraised enough money to cover the flight costs and gave the excess of what he raised to the Radcliff chapter of Disabled American Veterans Charity.

He also got 100 teddy bear donations, many of which were paired with $50 sponsorships for the Elizabethtown Police Department’s Shop with a Cop charity. Bratcher took one bear with him on each jump, then the bears were tagged with the number of the jump they went on. The bears will be donated to children in need in the Elizabethtown area.