This awesome family broke the record for the most stairs descended by a slinky

Do you have a slinky?

If you ask your parents, they’ll most likely have childhood memories of launching a slinky off the top of a staircase, and watching it spring down the steps until it eventually loses momentum…

It just never stops being fun!

And if you’ve ever made a bet about how long the toy’s spiralled trek will last, we’re guessing that you wouldn’t want to challenge the Luchsinger family, since they have figured out a clever way to calculate the record-breaking amount. 

Last May, the family of Joe, Christelle, and 5-year-old Axel, who live in Ohio, USA, took the epic Guinness World Records title for the most stairs descended by a slinky with a whopping 53!

The record hadn’t been broken since 2014, when Marty Jopson and Hugh Hunt (both from the UK) achieved 30 stairs.

So not only the Luchsinger family achieved a record that hadn’t been broken in OVER 10 YEARS, but they almost doubled the number of stairs!

But what inspired them to do it?

In an interview with the Yale School of Medicine, where Joe is a neuroscience researcher, he explained that he and his wife were inspired to take on the record for their son Axel, who is admittedly “very early in his slinky career.”

“I've always had a soft spot for them, but hadn't played with one in years,” said Joe.

Your passions and hobbies can turn into record-breaking challenges, if you dream big enough!

“Our son Axel is at the age where everything needs to be the biggest, fastest, or most extreme version of itself,” he continued. “He'd recently discovered slinkys and knew I had attempted a record before, so naturally he wanted to know the record for most stairs descended by a slinky. 

“When we looked it up and saw the existing record was 30 stairs, it seemed beatable.”

So at the age of 5, Axel had the idea to break a record AND he convinced his parents to do it together?

ICONIC!

Joe prepared for the attempt like a scientist – testing multiple slinkys for their stamina before settling on a six inch (15 cm) rainbow slinky from Amazon.

They also considered multiple locations throughout the state to make the drop, until they landed on the stairs at Otterbein Stadium in Westerville, Ohio.

Finally, they recruited an independent witness on the track to also serve as their videographer.

And after an impressive total of 53 stairs, the exhausted toy finally ran out of steam, securely past the finish line and far enough to take the record for the excited family…

We never said record breaking was easy!

So congratulations to the Luchsingers, you are all Officially Amazing.