Constable: Barrington teen in rare air going for World Cup of Indoor Skydiving

Buffeted by hurricane-strength wind, 15-year-old Gigi Keuer of Barrington is flung from one side of the chamber to another, her petite frame spinning, flipping end over end, and soaring into the air before plummeting face-first toward the floor.

But the wind in this chamber at iFly Naperville isn't in charge. Keuer controls the action, maneuvering through winds approaching 160 miles per hour using subtle movements with her 100-pound body wrapped in a tight, black flight suit topped with a helmet.

“It's not as complicated - when you do it - as it looks,” says Keuer, who will be competing in the 2022 World Cup of Indoor Skydiving this April in Belgium with teammates Kiana Adamson, 15, of Colorado; Bella Capra, 13, of Oregon; and Jill Knutson, 16, of New York.

Last month, the quartet of teenage girls on team Volare defeated a diverse collection of competitors, including adult men teams, to win the silver medal at the 2021 U.S. Indoor Skydiving Nationals at iFly in El Paso, Texas, and claim a spot in the world championship.

“We were all really proud of how we flew,” says Keuer.

Keuer says she understands the significance of teenage girls succeeding in a world full of barriers, as a volunteer who travels to Guatemala every summer to work with children living near a landfill known as the Guatemala City Garbage Dump Community.

“Volare girls are fierce competitors and really represent the strength of what young women can do through hard work and supporting each other,” says their coach, Mike Wittenburg, who grew up in Naperville and became a famed skydiver with more than 18,000 jumps before establishing a second career as a legendary skydiving coach. Kaleigh, 17, and Noah, 15, the children of Mike and Julie Wittenburg, won the first U.S. National Indoor Skydiving Competition in 2017 and now are the reigning world champion team.

“He is the Michael Jordan of the sport,” Courtney Desmond, Keuer's mother, says of Mike Wittenburg.

Competing in the Dynamic 4-Way event, Keuer and her three teammates zip through a series of three-dimensional patterns in a tight formation during a race in which the winners are separated by fractions of a second. With four skydivers zipping around a tube 14 feet wide, there is no room for errors. Veering outside a pattern or making contact with the wall earns a 5-second penalty.

“It's kind of scary to be moving toward the glass when you are facing it,” says Keuer, who confesses to hitting the glass wall a few times during practices but never getting injured more than a bump or bruise. “Usually, it's just because you have a moment when you're not thinking.”

A cellphone and an iPad record her practice, as Wittenburg communicates with hand signals. During breaks, they huddle and go over those videos to see where she can improve.

Too young to skydive outside legally in the United States, Keuer should be more than ready when she turns 18.

“It's the same skill set, the same movement,” Wittenburg says of the indoor skydiving. “It actually requires more athletic ability.”

When an outside skydiver loses control of her body for a second and veers off course, the sky is more forgiving than an enclosed chamber. Of course, inside skydivers never worry about a chute not opening properly, a plane malfunctioning or landing on electrical wires.

“You have to know where you are going. You get a feel for it,” Keuer says of her inside flights. “There are different variations, and it's easy to get them mixed up. That's the most stressful part, knowing what comes next.”

That was no problem for the team when they competed in the nationals.

“They are one with the wind,” Wittenburg says. The World Cup also has a junior division where team Volare could compete.

Keuer first tried indoor skydiving at age 10 during a school field trip to iFly Naperville to learn about the physics of wind movement. She took lessons from Kaleigh Wittenburg, before being trained by Mike Wittenburg in a regimen that features weekly training sessions in Naperville, and more intense weeklong training sessions with her teammates in facilities in Michigan, Texas, Virginia and Florida.

“We'll do two hours a day, and sometimes we'll do seven days in a row, so they'll fly 14 hours, which is a lot on the body,” Wittenburg says.

That also requires a lot of money. While some nations pay to train skydiving athletes, that's not the case for Keuer and her parents. Desmond, a former management and technology consultant, and her husband, Dr. Brian Keuer, a urologist with a private practice in Lake Barrington, spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on the sport. Keuer's team just got their first corporate sponsor, Boogie Man, a maker of flight suits, Desmond says.

The family also volunteers time and donates money to Hope's In, a Barrington-based charity founded in 2012 by twin sisters Ashley and Courtney Quigley, which sends volunteers to Guatemala to build homes, host medical clinics and encourage young people to make a difference. Keuer made her first trip to Guatemala at age 10, and her mom serves on the board of directors.

Keuer, a sophomore at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic day and boarding high school for girls, says she never really cared about the childhood dance classes and soccer teams that dominate some girls' early years. She played on the volleyball team this season, but skydiving dominates her free time and her passion.

A TikTok video posted by skydiver Blake “eggsandblaken” Cullen of Keuer and her team finishing their routine in Texas and gracefully exiting one by one backward through the narrow door attracted more than 30,000 views with the caption, “How did they all get out like that?”

The wind is strong enough to toss Keuer around as if she's in a horror movie with awesome special effects. When she does put her feet on the netting that serves as a floor, her hands still flap in the wind and make it look as if she's waving. It's empowering to harness that energy and make it take your body where you want to go, Keuer says.

She says she's inspired by her mom, who has made 208 jumps from airplanes, although the last was a few years ago to celebrate her 40th birthday. Her dad has performed one jump, which was a medical school graduation present from his wife.

The sport of indoor skydiving, practiced locally at iFly facilities in Naperville, Rosemont and Chicago, has been gaining popularity in the last five years and is being promoted as a potential Olympic sport.

“I hope so,” says Keuer, who will be 22 years old when the 2028 Games come to Los Angeles.

Until then, she'll practice under the tutelage of Wittenburg, who knows the thrill of the sport, inside and out.

“Right now, with the weather outside,” Wittenburg says, as he finishes Keuer's lesson in the comfy viewing area of iFly Naperville, “I'd rather be here.”