Jana Pivkova

united states

Jana was born in Slovakia (former Czechoslovakia) and defected to Germany with her family in 1989. In 1991 they emigrated from Germany to the USA where they now live in Southern California. Jana’s father introduced her to paragliding, sharing his own passion with her in the form of tandem flying. In 2017 she overcame her lack of self-confidence to start flying herself, “overriding all my natural survival instincts”. She fell in love with it! Jana says paragliding has helped her confidence in other areas of life too, and made her realise that with baby steps almost anything is achievable. Her first wing was the Epic 2, then she moved to the Base 2 then the Lynx 2 and in 2025 she moved to the Cure 3. She says, “I have not participated in any competitions yet, but who knows what the future holds for me!” Jana hopes her flying journey will inspire others to believe in themselves and start living their dreams. Her advice: “Give yourself a chance and don’t be afraid to fail. Compete against yourself first and foremost. It will take you farther than you ever believed possible.”