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An 86-year-old California woman is swinging into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest trapeze artist.

Betty Goedhart of La Jolla said she never would have captured the record for oldest performing flying female trapeze artist if she hadn't received a gift certificate for a lesson at Trapeze High in Escondido for her 78th birthday.

She said trying the sport helped her overcome her longstanding fear of heights.

"Very frightened of heights, very scared of standing on that platform and looking down and it's higher than you think," Goedhart told KSWB-TV. "But I'm here, I jumped and it was like it changed my life."