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Nikolas "Nik" Wallenda (born January 24, 1979) is an American acrobat, aerialist, daredevil, high wire artist, and author. He is known for his high-wire performances without a safety net. He holds nine Guinness World Records for various acrobatic feats, but is best known as the first person to walk a tightrope stretched directly over Niagara Falls. A seventh-generation member of The Flying Wallendas family, Nik Wallenda participated in various circus acts as a child. At age 13, he made his professional tightrope walking debut. He chose high-wire walking as his career in 1998, after joining family members in a seven-person pyramid on the wire. In 2001, Wallenda was part of the world's first seven-person high-wire pyramid. From 2002 to 2005, he performed with his family at various venues, forming his own troupe in 2005. During 2007 and 2008, he performed with Bello Nock in a double version of the Wheel of Steel that he helped invent. In 2009, he set new personal bests for highest and longest tightrope walks, completing a total of 15 walks above in the air that year. In 2008, Wallenda set Guinness World Records for longest and highest bicycle ride on a high-wire ride at above the ground in New Jersey. He nearly doubled the height record in 2010 to . On the same day in 2010, he upped his personal best by tightrope walking over in a single performance. In 2011, Wallenda set a world record by performing on the Wheel of Death atop the 23 story Tropicana Casino and Resort. Later that year, Wallenda and his mother tightrope walked between the two towers of Condado Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico. The feat was a re-creation of the one that had killed Karl Wallenda, Nik's great-grandfather and primary source of inspiration. On June 10, 2011, Wallenda hung from a helicopter off the ground using only his teeth to hold on. After a two-year legal battle involving both sides of the Canada–United States border to gain approval, Wallenda crossed Niagara Falls on June 15, 2012 on a live ABC special. For the walk he was required to wear a safety harness for the first time in his life. Shortly thereafter, a reality show following Wallenda's feats aired on the Science Channel. In 2013, Wallenda released a memoir entitled ''Balance''. On June 23, 2013, he became the first person to high-wire walk across a Grand Canyon area gorge (crossing the Little Colorado River outside Grand Canyon National Park), the feat airing live on Discovery. He followed that up with ''Skyscraper Live'', a live Discovery special which aired on November 2, 2014. In the special, Wallenda completed two tightrope walks, setting two new Guinness World Records: one for walking the steepest tightrope incline between two buildings, and the other for the highest tightrope walk while blindfolded. Wallenda is married with three children, and considers his Christian faith to be a central aspect of his life. ==Background== (詳細はThe Flying Wallendas family of aerialists. His ancestors, primarily of Austro-Hungarian descent, have been circus performers since the 1700s and have been doing balancing acts without nets since Karl Wallenda made the family famous for the feat in the 1920s.〔 Nik Wallenda is a direct descendant of Karl, whom he calls his role model and his "biggest hero in life".〔 Karl "didn’t do the ordinary. He has always inspired me", Nik explained. Nik has called growing up in the Wallenda family an honor and "like standing on the shoulders of giants. They've created a legacy that has gone on for seven generations and I've been able to continue it along."〔 Several members of the family have lost their lives while training or performing. In 1962, the troupe's famous seven-person pyramid collapsed, killing two family members and paralyzing Wallenda's uncle Mario.〔 In 1978, Karl Wallenda died after falling from a tight rope at age 73 in Puerto Rico.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nik Wallenda」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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