In the world of scuba diving, freediving is highly revered as one of the more difficult forms of scuba diving. Freediving, by its definition, is referred to as the act of scuba diving without the aid of any breathing apparatus. In such situations, divers try to reach great depths whilst holding their breath underwater for as long as they possibly can. As a result, freediving poses a great challenge to the diver and their bodies.
According to researchers, an average human can safely hold his or her breath for up to 1-2 minutes. However, freedivers undergo rigorous breathwork and exercises, allowing them to potentially hold their breath for more than an astonishing 10 minutes. Freedivers also undergo training that results in them having a lower resting heart rate, allowing them to further hold their breath and as a result, dive deeper without gasping for air.
Of course, amongst the many, there are a few who stand out in terms of their freediving achievements. These individuals have put their bodies to the test, undergone immense training and achieved superhuman levels of composure, breath-holding and endurance to reach depths that no other human has even reached in a single breath. In this article, we feature the top 5 deepest freediving records ever set.
1. Umberto Pelizzari
Umberto Pelizzari is an Italian freediver who achieved the world record in constant weight in 1990, reaching 65 meters. He also set records for variable weight at 95 meters and in the No Limits apnea he descended a lung-busting 118 meters in 1991.
2. Natalia Molchanova
Natalia Vadimovna Molchanova was a Russian champion freediver. She held a total of 41 world records as well as won 23 gold medals. She was the first woman to dive on one breath through the Blue Hole arch in Dahab, Egypt and her record was a dive of 127 metres (417 ft.).
3. Tanya Streeter
Tanya Streeter is a British-Caymanian-American world champion freediver. For more than two months from 17 August 2002 she held the overall “No Limit” freediving record with a depth of 160m which till today is still the women’s world record for NLT (No Limit) Apnea.
4. Loic Leferme
Loïc Leferme was a French diver who was the world free diving record holder until 2 Octover 2005. In 2002 he set the world free diving record without any breathing apparatus at 162 meters. His first world record was 137 meters (1999). On 30 October 2004, he extended his own world record to 171 meters in the no limits free-diving category.
5. Herbert Nitsch
Herbert is a multiple World Champion and the current freediving World Record holder named “the Deepest Man on Earth”. This prestigious media-title was given to him when he then set the world record for freediving at an incredible depth of 214 meters (702 ft) in 2007 in the No Limit discipline. He has held world records in all of the eight freediving disciplines recognised by AIDA International and to date, he has achieved over 33 official World records across all freediving disciplines.