Roberta Mancino is an Italian
skydiver
Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes.
For hu ...
,
BASE jumper
BASE jumping () is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend to the ground. BASE is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antenna (radio), antenna ...
,
wingsuit flyer and international model. She has participated in more than 12,500 skydives and won several awards and world records. She has gone on four skydives while completely naked, and on five occasions her parachute did not open in mid-jump. In 2010, Mancino was named the World's Sexiest Female Athlete by the magazine ''
Men's Fitness''.
Biography
Born in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, Mancino was 16 when she did her first modeling work for a magazine.
She started skydiving in October 2001.
Mancino convinced her best friend, a skydiver, to take her on a jump even though he encouraged her not to because it was too dangerous. She began to take it more seriously as a profession when people started asking her to coach them. Eventually, Mancino started participating in international competitions.

She regularly trains at the Skyventure XP Paraclete in
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
. Her parachute has malfunctioned five times though she was able to use the reserve. She has also made four jumps while completely naked for magazine photo shoots.
[ In 2008, Mancino appeared on the Italian television program Le Iene with Marco Berry, jumping ]topless
Toplessness refers to the state in which a woman's breasts, including her areolas and nipples, are exposed, especially in a public place or in a visual medium. The male equivalent is known as barechestedness.
Social norms around toplessness ...
and demonstrating her freeflying
Free flying is a skydiving discipline that began in the late 1980s, involving falling free in various vertical orientations, as opposed to the traditional "belly-to-earth" orientation. The discipline is known to have originated when Olav Zipser b ...
and sit flying skills. Mancino met her former boyfriend, BASE jumper Jeb Corliss, in 2009 after he learned about her jumps and arranged to meet her. In 2009, after having made about 5,500 skydives, Mancino started BASE jumping along with Corliss. She performed in 115 BASE jumps (35 with wingsuit) between August 2009 and September 2011. Also inspired by Corliss, she began wingsuit flying
Wingsuit flying (or wingsuiting) is the sport of skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit called a wingsuit to add webbed area to the diver's body and generate increased lift, which allows extended air time by gliding flight rather than just ...
, which involves jumping from an aircraft wearing a jumpsuit with webbed wings similar to a flying squirrel
Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe (biology), tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family (biology), family Squirrel, Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight i ...
. This led to proximity flying, which is the flying of a wingsuit in close proximity to cliffs and trees during the flight, the jumper then deploys their parachute once they have moved a safe distance away from any hazards (similar to BASE jumping in this respect).
One of her dreams is to BASE jump off the Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa (known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration) is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, or just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding the antenna, but inc ...
, the tallest man-made structure in the world, and circle around it as she goes down. She also aspires to jump out of a plane and reenter the same plane as it dives. She has participated in big way formation skydiving
Formation skydiving is a skydiving event where multiple skydivers attach themselves to one another by grabbing each other's limbs or by the use of "grippers" on their jumpsuit while free falling through the sky. The goal of this skydiving prog ...
. Regarding freestyle skydiving, Mancino said, "It becomes kind of boring to me because it’s too solitary ... I prefer group activity". As a model, she has appeared in ''Men's Fitness'', '' Vanity Fair'', '' Allure'', ''Maxim
Maxim or Maksim may refer to:
Entertainment
*Maxim (magazine), ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine
** Maxim (Australia), ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition
** Maxim (India), ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition
*Maxim ...
'', ''Men's Health
''Men's Health'' (''MH''), published by Hearst Communications, Hearst, is the world's largest men's magazine brand, with 35 editions in 59 countries; it is the bestselling men's magazine on American newsstands.
Started as a men's health magazin ...
'', ''Max''. In 2010, Mancino was named the World's Sexiest Female Athlete by the magazine '' Men's Fitness''. As of December 2010, Mancino has gone on more than 7,000 skydives. In 2014 she was a coach on the TV show '' Calzedonia Ocean Girls''.
Records and awards
In 2003, Roberta Mancino placed first in the Malevski Cup at the Russia Freestyle and the Space Games Freestyle. In 2004, she won first place in the Tunnel Competition in Orlando, Florida
Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...
. She received both the Italian Record and Euro Record for skydiving in 2005, and won first place in the Tunnel Competition in Perris Valley, California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. In 2007, Mancino broke the European Record for Formation Freefly and the World Record for Formation 69-Way Freefly. Also that year, she placed first in the Italian Nationals of Skydiving. In 2009, she took part to a world record 108-way freefly in Chicago.
In September 2013 she placed 2nd overall women in the ProBase Worldcup held in Stechelberg, Switzerland.[ProBase Worldcup September 2013 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151658711222844&set=a.397336417843.175996.350551857843&type=1&theater]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mancino, Roberta
1980 births
Living people
People from Anzio
Italian female models
Italian skydivers
Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital