freediving

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Freediver in Trunks Sets New Under-Ice Swim Record
Freediver Shatters
Another Frigid Record
UPDATED
Mar 14, 2023 4:55 PM CDT

Freediver Shatters Another Frigid Record

David Vencl dives more than 170 feet on one breath, in icy waters

(Newser) - It's another wild record for freediver David Vencl, who on Tuesday managed to swim to a depth of 52.1 meters (about 171 feet) in waters as cold as 34 degrees Fahrenheit without a wetsuit. The feat took the 40-year-old Czech swimmer 114 seconds, which his promoter tells Reuters...

She Nearly Ended Her Life. Instead, She Went Deeper Than Anyone

A profile of Alenka Artnik, the female freediving champion of the world

(Newser) - Alenka Artnik's origin story produces chills, in more ways than one. In a stunning piece for the Long Read , Xan Rice details a 2010 night on a Slovenian bridge when the almost-30-year-old—weighed down by her father's psychological abuse and the death of her mother and her stepbrother—...

She Dove 374 Feet Without Taking a Breath

For Alenka Artnik and freediving, 'it was love at first sight'

(Newser) - Those watching the surface of the water were likely somewhat worried about Alenka Artnik, who was attempting to free dive to a depth no woman had before. But Tito Zappalá wasn't too concerned. Having taken an underwater scooter to depths of 200 feet, the safety diver watched Artnik ascend...

Behind a People's Superhuman Ability to Dive: the Spleen

New study looks at the Bajau people

(Newser) - "They are simply a stranger to the land," an anthropologist says of Southeast Asia's Bajau people, and a new study shows their bodies have changed to account for that. The Bajau, who live in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, sustain themselves by diving for fish, and have...

World's Best Free Diver Presumed Dead After Dive

Natalia Molchanova, who set 41 world records, was on a recreational swim

(Newser) - The woman considered to be the "greatest free diver in history," who could hold her breath for more than nine minutes while submerged in a pool, is presumed to have drowned while diving off the coast of Spain near Ibiza on Sunday, reports the New York Times . Natalia...

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