The Cycle   |  October 15, 2012

All hail King Felix

Daredevil Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier- and a few world records – with his historical supersonic space jump. Toure hails the daredevil king and talks about this inspiring test of human limits.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> the coolest guy in the world right now is this guy.

>> jumper away. u jumper away.

>> that's felix baumgartner who yesterday jumped out of a helium balloon that was 24 miles above the earth. he was in free fall for 4 minutes and 19 seconds during which time his body hurtling to earth faster than the speed of sound . but his parachute opened and he touched down likely and walked away. why did he do it? probably for the same reason george mallory said when asked why he climbed mount everest , because it's there. baumgartner said on his website, it says everyone has limits, not everyone accepts them. it's not that there's no fear in him or in george mallory or in fi philippe who walked on a wire strung between the two hours of the world trade center . they feel a compulsion to attack fear and they refused to be constrained by it. do-to-do daredevil things is to laugh in the face of self-preservation and that instinct hard wired into every organism. it's to challenge death and when you succeed you break some primal rule. after a near-death experience, you feel more alive. after you have stood in the doorway of a plane full of fear, your heart saying you go, i'm going to stay here in the plane, and you let go because you refuse to be defined by fear, then, my friends, you feel alive . how do i know? because i have jumped out of airplanes. this happened in florida about four years ago. jumping from around 8,000 feet. it was pretty hairy and it changed me forever. the fraternity of sky divers is a special one and now felix baumgartner is the king of sky divers. all