Skydiving in Stilettos: Model Roberta Mancino Shines In Extreme Sports

Weather Ventures

Stunning model talks about her favorite adventures on Earth and shares some amazing photos.

Free Falling

Jumping off the side of a cliff is terrifying enough -- now imagine doing it in 3-inch heels. Extreme sports athlete Roberta Mancino has perfected the art of looking gorgeous while defying gravity. The model-turned-athlete is a force to be reckoned with in the skydiving, base jumping and scuba diving world. Mancino, who was born in Italy, began modeling at 16. She began skydiving in 2001 and was hooked. The stunning athlete has more than 7,000 jumps on her resume, and has traveled the world to explore the skies and seas.

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“Since I was little I always wanted to fly,” Mancino told weather.com via email. “And when I was about 16, I saw a video of a friend jumping from a cliff and skydiving with other people and I thought it would be so cool to be able to fly in such beautiful places everywhere in the world. I was inspired to scuba dive because I’ve always loved the ocean and the animals that live there."

Seen here in free fall over the desert, the model says it’s too hard to decide which adventure location is her favorite. But if she had to choose, Mancino says: “For scuba diving I will say Tiger beach in Bahamas. For skydiving Contadora, Panama. For base jumping Switzerland and China.”

There’s no shortage of excitement in Manicino’s life, and this summer is already a busy one.

“I will be training all summer, and filming base jumps. We are working on another high fashion base jump, then I have a wingsuit race,” she says. “I have a really big project in Panama and a new series on Epic TV with different projects that are coming out in the next few months -- one is my expedition with Sailfish.”

Click through to see photos of Mancino’s incredible adventures.