Background
Wallenda is a seventh-generation member of The Flying Wallendas family of aerialists. His ancestors 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.
Read more about this topic: Nik Wallenda
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—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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