After his first jump at 19, Eli Thompson knew that skydiving was something he would do for the rest of his life. At first, he just considered himself a weekend warrior, working in jumps while awaiting his big break as an actor.
But the urge to fly full time took over in 1996, when he and four other guys formed a skydiving team called the Flyboyz and developed a whole new style of skydiving called freeflying. They were the first in the sport to literally dive headfirst at top speed through the sky, when skydiving had previously been flat.
By 1997, Eli and his teammates were traveling the world doing "boogies," or skydiving events, in Russia, Argentina, Thailand and throughout Europe, earning championship and first-place titles at national and international events. From 1997 to 2000, the Flyboyz were the world's freefly champions.
It's a wonder that after 14 years of skydiving, completing over 13,000 jumps, Eli has never broken a bone and has only had to go to his reserve chute 14 times.
When not in competition, Eli and the Flyboyz produce stunts for television and motion pictures. Eli's big break came as Austin Power's stunt double in Austin Powers III: Goldmember. He performed as Austin parodying Tom Cruise as he did an open canopy fly down Wall Street into Austin's "Shaguar."
Eli has also appeared in a number of television commercials, including Mountain Dew and Denny's, as well as documentaries on TLC, A&E and Travel Channel. Currently, he's the host of Discovery Channel's Stunt Junkies, airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Not only is Eli an accomplished sky diver, he has also mastered other extreme sports, such as BASE jumping, snowboarding and wakeboarding. He's thrilled to see the level of attention that is being given to extreme sports these days. He says that stunts created by suburban kids with pent-up energy and few outlets have finally come into their own and matured into real sport forms.
In his free time, Eli is actually a bit of a homebody. He likes spending quiet time with his wife and 5-year-old daughter.
