1980’s – 1990’s :

By this time, Mayol and Maiorca had withdrawn from competitive freediving and others were to take their place. Fully equipped with modern tools and equipment that had progressed fast in the 30 years preceding them, a new fierce rivalry was born; the new actors were Italian Umberto Pelizzari and Cuban Francisco Rodriguez, better known as Pipin Ferreras, both emerging around 1990. These two freedivers excelled in the category now called No Limit, a term made necessary by the appearance of new deep diving disciplines such as Variable Weight Apnea and Constant Weight. Neck to neck for the remains of the decade, Pipin and Pelizzari took No Limit into the meters 110, 120, 130 and beyond, while further developing the design of the diving sleds used.

1990 – 2001: The Birth of AIDA :

In 1990 Roland Specker, a freediver from the North East of France, met world-class freediver Claude Chapuis from Nice, and they decided to organize clinics so that others could also discover freediving. Specker and Chapuis also set out to create proper regulations for freediving world records, when in fact many records were being established without homogenous global rules. Specker and Chapuis sought out a number of European freedivers, aiming to unite them in an association to recognize records. On November 2nd 1992, Specker, Chapuis and a few others created the “Association Internationale pour le Développement de l’Apnée” (AIDA), with Specker being its first President. Several records were quickly recognized by AIDA, which were to become the reference for freediving.

The birth of AIDA launched a period of political volatility surrounding competitive freediving. By 1995 CMAS again started to recognize records in response to the AIDA initiative, defining their own separate set of regulations. Francisco Rodriguez, who had become a key figure in the development of No Limit Apnea and the broad media exposure of freediving, developed a long lasting opposition to AIDA. In 1997 he fathered the short-lived IAFD (International Organization of Free Divers), which monitored his later records. In protest to controversial decisions made by AIDA, by 1999 in Italy was formed the organization FREE (Freediving Regulations and Education Entity), also to regulate records. Most developing efforts kept shifting towards AIDA though, all while records kept increasing worldwide.

Through the early 1990‘s, Claude Chapuis had organized small competitions between the freedivers attending the clinics held in Nice, and the thought of organizing a world championship quickly grew. The 1st AIDA World Championship was thus held in Nice in October 1996 organized by the freediving club NUC Subaquatique managed by Claude with the help of a sailor, Joseph Strazzanti who works at the general Council of the Alpes-Maritimes which decides to support this adventure. It was a competition for national teams featuring Constant Weight and Static Apnea, with 35 participants each in teams of 5. The actual nationality of an athlete was not considered particular as the need for filling up teams competing for Germany, Belgium, Columbia, Spain, France and Italy rose. A team representing the United Nations consisting of left over freedivers from various countries was also ascribed. Modern competition freediving was born on that day and subject to improvement. On departure day, Claude Chapuis shook Umberto Pelizzari’s hand and said, “You won; now it’s up to you to organize the second World Championship”.

1997 was a year of transition and several freedivers created groups in their own countries. AIDA continued to certify records with 12 countries on the contact list, requiring each of these to create their own national AIDA association. The AIDA baton was by then largely held in France; Thierry Meunier and Laurent Trougnou initiated an early AIDA website to promote the development of freediving via the Internet, giving all freedivers the opportunity to stay in contact.

Umberto Pelizzari kept his word and hosted the 2nd AIDA World Championship in Sardinia in 1998. Now 28 countries attended and the event was praised as well organized. Jacques Mayol’s presence created an emotional atmosphere, and during the competition France and Italy went neck-to-neck, mimicking Mayol and Maiorca’s past rivalry, with Italy and Pelizzari himself claiming the gold.

By this time, many new competitive disciplines were suggested by record thirsting freedivers. Most were rejected, others were tested and found too light. Since around 1990, world best achievements in a pool training discipline later labelled Static Apnea was noted in the margin of the book of apnea. For a while AIDA kept distinctions between depth records set in sea and fresh water, and briefly between short and long pool records in the new discipline called Dynamic Apnea: Already in the 1900 Paris Olympic Games, “Under Water Swimming” had been tested but not repeated. Combining scores from both length and time achievement, Frenchman Charles de Vendeville swam 60 meters in little over a minute, and has so far been the only Olympic Freediving Champion. This makes Dynamic Apnea (in a mix with Static Apnea) the oldest form of competitive freediving.

By the mid 1990‘s static and dynamic disciplines saw increased attention, with a major contributor being Frenchman Andy Le Sauce, whose ultimate limits in both Static and Dynamic went unchallenged for five years across the turn of the millennium.

In 1999 “AIDA” became “AIDA International” to keep up with the continued development. On September 21st Roland Specker handed over the AIDA presidency to Swiss Sébastien Nagel. Being AIDA’s responsible for records prior to taking the reins, the Lausannian Nagel became notorious for his logistic skills. In his presidency, AIDA and freediving saw an explosion in numbers of registered athletes and competitions, regulations development, and increased media coverage of freediving. Nagel also foresaw the forming of a large number of new national AIDA bodies, uniting these in the AIDA Assembly introduced in his time in office. The new president was surrounded by a group of international freedivers on an executive board counting Claude Chapuis, Frédéric Buyle (Belgium), Dieter Baumann (Austria), Karoline Meyer (Brazil) and Kirk Krack (Canada). The list of international contemporary freedivers grew with names such as Italians Gaspare Battaglia, Davide Carrera, and most notably Gianluca Genoni; this alongside Yoram Zekri (Belgium), Alejandro Ravelo (Cuba), Benjamin Franz (Germany), Jean-Michel Pradon, Michel Oliva, Loïc Leferme (France), Pierre Frolla (Monaco), Topi Lintukangas (Finland), David Lee (Great Britain) and Eric Fattah (Canada), as well as French women Nathalie Desréac, Audrey Mestre, Turkish Yasemin Dalkiliç, and the American wave Meghan Heaney-Grier, Annabel Edwards, Jessica Wilson and Tanya Streeter. By

2003, Streeter mirrored Angela Bandini’s 1989 feat by breaking the inter gender No Limit world record, reaching 160 meters depth.

By 1999 freedivers kept pushing the limits of breath hold diving. Umberto Pelizzari became the first to reach 150 meters in No Limit, and the first to reach 80 meters in Constant Weight. By now, Pelizzari had earned the respect of freedivers worldwide, considering him the best all round freediver of all time.

The big annual competition was the Red Sea Dive Off ’99 in El Gouna, Egypt, at the hands of local organizer Magda Abdou who called Claude Chapuis several months ago to help her. There are 23 nations. Following the first Red Sea Dive Off in 1998, an individual competition organized by Francisco Rodriguez and IAFD and won by later AIDA President Bill Strömberg, this second Dive Off included both an individual and a team event, Claude having suggested to test individual events in order to see if freedivers would be enough trained to announce controlled performances. This event comprising results in Constant Weight and Static. The individual event, won by respectively Claude Chapuis and Karoline Meyer. This event was plagued by a vast number of blackouts and the “samba” phenomenon (loss of motor control upon exit), while the team event saw almost none, being won by the Italian male team by one point margin to the French team. The demonstration had been done that individual competition should wait a little before to be organized at an international level.

In 2000 AIDA experimented with a new format, a World Cup to let time to an organizer to organize the next year a world championship by team. In an effort to minimize the number of blackouts and sambas, and based on the experience from El Gouna, AIDA kept the team format. The three competitions have been organized in Montreux, Switzerland, Soignies, Belgium and in Nice, France for the final. The 2 french teams (men and women) managed by Loic Leferme with as athletes Claude Chapuis, Olivier Heuleu Jean Michel Pradon for men, Delphine marleux, Sophie Passalaqua and Brigitte Banegas for the women win the competition. Some continue to express the desire to see more individual events worldwide. Once again in France Joseph and the general Council was the tittle partner of the competition. Guillaume Nery was safety freediver in France in 2000. 2000 has been also the year of the official introduction of the competition for women in AIDA team world events.

2001: A Legend’s Last Hurrah

In 2001, with the support of Club Med, the young Spaniard Olivier Herrera organized the 3rd AIDA Team World Championship in Ibiza. The Italian men lead by Umberto Pelizzari came first, France second, and Sweden third. For the women, in order, the Canadians with Mandy-Rae Cruickshank took gold, the Americans with Tanya Streeter silver, and the Italians with Silvia Dal Bon bronze. Herbert Nitsch (Austria), later to be not only one of the most dominant figures of freediving, but likely the most complete freediver ever, reached 86 meters in Constant Weight, a new world record. Shortly after this championship, Claude Chapuis announced his athletic retirement like Umberto Pelizzari following one last world record attempt, where he completed a Variable Weight dive to 131 meters depth.

2002: On to Hawaii

In 2002, AIDA USA representative Glennon Gingo organized the major international competition Pacific Cup – Jacques Mayol Memorial International Competition, in

Kona, Hawaii, originally intended to be part of the World Cup. World record holders were finally regularly participating in competitions; athletes like Martin Št?pánek (Czech Republic), Carlos Coste (Venezuela), Guillaume Néry, Stéphane Mifsud (France), Stig Åvall Severinsen (Denmark), Bill Strömberg (Sweden) and many others lit the scene. Bob Croft’s presence at this competition made the event something to remember for all participants. Now 27 teams competed, and on the men’s podium at the end were found the Swedish team including a female athlete, Charlotta Ericson, taking the silver medal just behind the Venezuelan team with Carlos Coste. AIDA had finally succeeded at uniting the best competitors in the world.

Tragedy

In October 2002, the worst possible incident struck freediving. Audrey Mestre, wife of Francisco “Pipin” Rodriguez and by now one of all time’s best female freedivers, lost her life during an official world record attempt off the coast of the Dominican Republic. She had set out to break the No Limit world record across both genders, and while trying to complete a 171 meter deep dive, her diving sled malfunctioned and she failed to reach the surface in time. The dive had been organized by IAFD, and the onsite security measures were heavily criticized in an emotional debate over the Internet following the accident. Most public flag went to Rodriguez, who consequently quit the freediving scene, his credibility exhausted. Few months prior to this tragedy, German Benjamin Franz had suffered a severe case of decompression sickness while training No Limit in the Red Sea, and had since been confined to a wheel chair. The now highly active freediving community instigated a complete re-evaluation of the deep diving safety measures, and as one consequence, AIDA introduced the mandatory use of a safety lanyard and back up lifting systems in deep diving disciplines.

2003: The Show Must Go On

2003 was somewhat a year of coincidental hiatus in AIDA in terms of a big international event, but did see the introduction of Constant Weight without Fins. This discipline had originally been developed and promoted by FREE, seeing its first proponents in Yasemin Dalkiliç, Topi Lintukangas and David Lee, before being inaugurated by AIDA. CMAS was not entirely done with freediving either and this year The Old Lady launched a new initiative: The Jump Blue. The format was to freedive as long as possible in open sea along a rectangular course at a depth of 15 meters. This competition form was criticized by some, and took off with limited success.

2004: Emerging Regularity

The 4th AIDA Team World Championship took place in Vancouver, Canada in 2004. This time Germany was the one to glitter as they took the golden cup, being the first non-Mediterranean country to do so, with second and third being the United Kingdom and Canada. In the women’s competition Canada was best followed by USA and Germany. Some criticized the otherwise well-organized competition for being held in Canada, the cold Northern waters blamed for only 10 countries participating. One other important event that year was the BIOS Open competition, seeing the first freediver, Carlos Coste, officially past 100 meters depth in Constant Weight.

2005: Individuality

More and more, local clubs were organizing individual pool and depth competitions, and in 2005 the 1st AIDA Individual World Championship in constant weight is organized by Claude Chapuis and Joseph Strazzanti with the support of the general Council of the Alpes-Maritimes in Villefranche sur Mer near Nice. Natalia Molchanova claimed the gold for the women with 86m and Carlos Coste for the men with 105m with a mask !

Another 1st Individual pool World Championships is organized in Renens, Switzerland one week before. Sébastien Nagel organized the 1st AIDA pool world championship. The competition disciplines where Static Apnea, Dynamic Apnea with Fins, and Dynamic Apnea without Fins. The best athletes in the world surpassed 200 meters in Dynamic and 8 minutes in Static, with 3 new world records set by new female master Natalia Molchanova from Russia. A new surface protocol had been introduced in response to controversy surrounding past ruling on the samba phenomenon. In 2005 Sébastien Nagel stepped back from being the president of AIDA International after 6 years, and colorful and experienced freediver Bill Strömberg from Sweden took his place. He took over an AIDA that by now administered competitions all over the world, being organized almost on a weekly basis, and with the community steadily growing. A new website was launched, now including an official set of world ranking lists, which had existed a few seasons prior in an Internet bootleg version. Contemporary freedivers now included Russian Alexey Molchanov, young son of Natalia Molchanova, Ryuzo Shinomiya (Japan), Peter Pedersen (Denmark), Juraj Karpiš (Slovakia), Tom Sietas (Germany), Patrick Musimu (Belgium) and Johanna Nordblad (Finland). Tom Sietas became a dominating figure across all pool disciplines and has to date claimed the highest number of AIDA world records with nineteen; one 2004 static world record of 8’58” stood unsurpassed for nearly two years. He is credited as the first to use neck weights in Dynamic Apnea, revolutionizing these events.

Patrick Musimu caused some controversy, when he announced that he would attempt to breach 200 meters in No Limit, but outside the supervision of any diving federation. On one last training attempt in June, Musimu reached 209 meters depth with his sled and successfully returned to the surface. Minutes after surfacing, he suffered symptoms of decompression sickness and received hyperbaric treatment, which cancelled the public attempt scheduled few days later.

An event in 2005 is held in Monaco in July the IWC World Static Apnea Contest, and organized by Pierre Frolla with the help of Joseph Strazzanti. This was the biggest freediving event yet to date, in terms of exposure and cash price. It was broadcasted live via the Internet, and had 500 seated spectators, including Prince Albert of Monaco, and saw Stéphane Mifsud take 1st prize.

By now, CMAS had further developed their freediving formats, launching their own separate annual world championships. The Jump Blue format was still its only open water activity, now along with a dynamic apnea format virtually identical to that of AIDA’s. Still, the bulk of the world freedivers sought out AIDA venues, the CMAS events regarded as a side opportunity.

2006: A Sphere Too Far

In 2006, freediving became subject to a peculiar and litigious media event. American street magician and endurance artist David Blaine, as part of a stunt in which he submerged himself in a water filled sphere for seven full days, also aimed to break Tom Sietas’ then Static world record of 8’58” as a big finale to his show; even though it wouldn’t be approved as an official world record by AIDA. In front of millions of TV viewers and thousands of spectators in New York, on May 1st Blaine held his breath, while simultaneously trying to escape from handcuffs. Onsite safety divers and co-organizers of the event Kirk Krack, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and Martin Stepanek were forced to intervene, when the otherwise talented breath holder Blaine blacked out 7 minutes and 8 seconds into his dive.

By December 2006 the 5th AIDA Team World Championship was held in Hurghada, Egypt, seeing Denmark take gold medal in the men’s ranks, and a legendary Russian team claiming the women’s gold in a competition plagued by organizational problems.

2007: Dives for the Ages

In 2007, AIDA launched new guidelines for sled diving and by summer Herbert Nitsch, who had now risen to dominate virtually all freediving disciplines, set out to reclaim the No Limit record he had held twice before. He aimed to surpass Musimu’s unofficial, but widely acknowledged 209 meter dive in the increasingly dangerous discipline. During his four and a half minute long, now 214 meter deep dive, thus surpassing the 700 feet marker, the innovative Nitsch made use of deep-water breath hold decompression, ascending very slowly to avoid the dreaded “bends”. He surfaced unscathed and claimed the record in this the deepest form of freediving.

AIDA foresaw the 3rd Individual AIDA World Championships held in Maribor, Slovenia. This almost perfectly executed pool event saw the introduction of a new competition format, having A and B finals for the best 16 freedivers across elimination heats. Head to head with 7 other freedivers starting simultaneously, Stig Severinsen claimed two gold medals out of three possible in the finals, and Natalia Molchanova took a triple-gold clean sweep. So far, Molchanova had taken all available female gold medals at individual world championships, setting new world records every time and being unprecedented in dominance among the women.

This was to change late in 2007 at the 4th Individual AIDA World Championships held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. At a recurring annual competition, The Triple Depth, held in nearby Dahab just two weeks short of the world championships, a new light shone forth on the world of freediving; completely unknown British freediver Sara Campbell broke three deep diving world records in the space of 48 hours. At the following world championships, she claimed the Constant Weight gold at the expense of Molchanova, who suffered a severe competition blackout and was disqualified. Meanwhile, Herbert Nitsch claimed both possible gold medals, including the Constant Weight without Fins category now part of the world championships.

On a flip side, in 2007 freediving was struck by two laps of tragedy; first long time active AIDA judge and instructor, popular Dimitris Vassilakis (Greece) drowned while spear fishing, and later the French No Limit master Loïc Leferme lost his life in a private training session with his sled outside Nice. The sled became entangled during ascent, and Leferme failed to reach the surface in time. By a bizarre twist of fate,

Leferme on the day was training down to 171 meters, the exact same depth as the one that claimed the life of Audrey Mestre five years earlier.

2008: The Present Future

The 2008 6th AIDA Team World Championship returned the world-class freedivers to sunny Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The Russian female team was again triumphant with an unprecedented margin down to USA and Japan. In a close men’s competition, the French team took the gold with less than 10 points down to the Czech Republic with Finland as runners up.

As of 2008, AIDA has officiated 204 world records and presented 156 world championship medals. Resent seasons have revealed talented freedivers like William Winram (Canada), Dave Mullins, Ant Williams, William Trubridge (New Zealand), and also Elisabeth Kristoffersen (Norway), Annelie Pompe (Sweden), Jarmila Sloven?íková (Czech republic) and Karla Fabrio (Croatia), with more arriving just beyond the horizon. Freedivers today have held their breath for more than 10 minutes, swam further than 250 meters in length and gone beyond 200 meters in depth, all on a single breath of air. As records continue to be broken, there seem to be no end to the aquatic potential of Homo Sapiens. As competitive freediving continues to evolve, it is AIDA that oversees this evolution, combining freediving efforts from a total of 65 countries worldwide today.

2009 : AIDA individual pool worlds are organized in Denmark and in the Dean’s blue hole for depth in Bahamas.

2010 : Japan hosts the AIDA team world championship. Japan is the country where Jacques Mayol is a legend. In the French team we have Aurore Asso, Brigitte Banégas, Julie Gautier, Alice Modolo, Morgan Bourc’his, Christian Maldamé, Guillaume Néry et Frédéric Sessa.

“Free fall” a video realized by Julie Gautier and Guillaume Néry starts a new evolution in the freediving world. Freediving becomes an underwater art. More than 8 million spectators see the movie in 7 months.

2011 : The world championship are organized in Kalamata by Stavros Kastrinakis for the depth disciplines. Guillaume Néry from Nice is the world champion in constant weight with 117m. Christian Maldamé is Bronze medal. Another Bronze medal is won with Morgan Bourch’his in constant no fin. Aurore Asso arrives in the fifth position in constant weight and Brigitte Banegas beat the french record in constant no fin. For the pool in Lignano (Italy) another french becomes world champion in dynamic no fin and J Michel Pradon is fifth in static apnea.

2012 : It’s the AIDA’s birthday. 20 years before AIDA has been created by freedivers for freedivers in France. Claude Chapuis and Joseph Strazzanti with the support of their historical partner, the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes meet together 33 nations in the bay of Villefranche sur Mer which host the event. 140 athletes are present which has never be seen in the freediving world.New countries participate like Israel, Algeria, Malaysia, Cyprus, Ukraine, UAE. Guillaume Néry realize in a team competition the depth of 114m in constant weight ! fourteen meters deeper than Alexey, his friend, who has the world record in this discipline. Craotia wins with its men team, France is second and third for the Czech Republic. Japn wins with its team for women, France is second and Serbia third.

2013 : The AIDA pool world championship is organized in Belgrade (Serbia) Thanks to Uros Kozic and his team. Natalia Molchanova, the great women of the freediving world at this date beat all the other women with 3 world records ! more than 9’ in Static, 234m in dynamic with fins et 182m without fins. Goran Colak for men realizes 281m in dynamic and 206 in dynamic no fin. With 8’59 in static, less than Natalia, he wins also the category.

The same year the AIDA depth world championship is organized in Kalamata (Grece). Natala Molchanova win everything in the women category with a new world record in free immersion with 91m. For men, the son of Natalia, Alexey win the constant weight with 128m. William Trubride wins in free immersion but Morgan Bourc’his, a french, wins in constant no fin.

2014 : The ninth AIDA team WC is held in Calgary (ITA). Russia wins with the men even if it got a red card for one men.

2015 : It’s in Belgrade (Serbia) that the AIDA pool world championship is organized. Thanks again to Uros Kozic and his team. 122 athletes from 27 different countries are present. Natalia Molchanova wins the gold medal in STA with 8’38 and Aleix Segura for the men with 9’32. For the DYN, it’s again Natalia who win with 236m and Giorgos Panagiotakis with 280m. In DNF Alice Hickson wins with 174m and Giorgos again with 214m.

The AIDA depth individual WC is organized in Limassol (Cyprus). In Free immersion Jeanine Grasmeijer wins with 82m; Misuzu Okamoto in constant weight with 90m and Sayuri Kinoshita and Mandy Summer in constant no fin with 58m. For the men, gold for William Trubridge in free immersion with 110m, Alexey Molchanov in constant weight with 120m and in constant no fin with 85m. The great woman champions Natalia Molchanova dies in August 2 during a session with friends. This amazing lady has been described as “possibly the world’s greatest freediver”. 2015 is also the year where a giant mistake is done by the judges by forgetting to check the depth of the rope for a world record attempt of Guillaume Nery at 129m during the world championship. The end of the line has been put to 139m. By chance and also because this day guillaume is very very prepared for 129, he will go down and up and will have only a black out around 20m from the surface. A miracle ! Guillaume decides this day to stop competition. He lost this day the possibility to become the world champion and world record holder.

2016 : the tenth AIDA team world championship are organized in Kalamata. Thanks again Stavros ! for the women, Japan is the winner with Tomoko Fukuda, Hanako Hirose and Misuzu Okamoto. Japan is the strongest nation today in freediving when it comes to women. Silver medal for Czech Republic and Bronze medal for Russia. For the men it’s Czech Republic for gold medal, France for Silver and then Russia for bronze.

This same year, In Turku (Finland) is also organized the AIDA pool world championship with Mikko Anttonen and Sari Nuotio (Finnish Diver’s Federation). There 95 athletes from 21 countries. Two athletes in Dynamic apnea realize 300m and beat the world record ! For the women, Polish competitor Magdalena Solich took gold medal with her 232m dive. Silver medal went to Julia Kozerska, also from Poland, with 215m dive. Anette Ottzen, Denmark, took the third place by diving 210m. In static

apnea, Gabriela Grezlova wins the gold with 7’59 and for the men it’s Aleix Segura with 9’23. Magdalena Solich wins the gold in Dynamic no fin with 185m and Mateusz Malina break the world record with 244m and win.

2017 : it’s time for Estaban in the island of Roatan to organize the seventh AIDA individual depth world championship. Alessia Zecchini win the gold with 88m in FIM and William Trubridge for the men with 111 points. In consant weight Alenka Artnik is the winner with 100m and Alexey Molchanov and David Mullins with 126m for the men. In constant no fins it’s Sayuri Kinoshita with 70m who is gold medal, Alexey Molchanov and William Trubridge get both the gold medal with 90m.

2018 : it’s Belgrade again with Uros which welcome the AIDA pool world championship. For Dynamic no fin, the finals kicked off with the Dynamic No-Fins (DNF), where the Polish team has once again demonstrated that they are the true masters of the pool disciplines. Three out of six podium places went to Polish athletes – Magdalena Solich-Talanda won a Gold Medal with a 178 m performance, Mateusz Malina for the third time in a row defended the Gold with a 226 m performance, and Julia Kozerska scored Silver with a 173 m performance.

The rest of the podium places went to Alexander Bubenchikov (Ukraine) – Silver, Mirela Kardasevic (Croatia) and Vitomir Maricic (Croatia) – Bronze.

In addition to that, there were three National Records set by Tijana Nikolic (Serbia) at 140 m, Alexander Bubenchikov (Ukraine) at 217 m and Giannis Kothonidis (Greece) at 204 m.

For the Dynamic event, three of the six very strong athletes competing in the Men’s A Finals ended up with red cards, which was a complete surprise for everybody watching. Furthermore, Mateusz Malina, a current World Record holder in DYN (300 m) and one of the only two men, who were doing all three events in the Finals, pulled up early at 203 m.

As a result, the medals went to Alexander Bubenchikov (Ukraine) – Gold with a 289 m performance, Petar Klovar (Croatia) – Silver (212 m) and Mateusz Malina (Poland) – Bronze.

Women’s A Finals, on the other hand, surprised us with a new World Record. Magdalena Solich-Talanda from Poland has smashed the previous record of 237 m held by the late Natalia Molchanova, and with an amazing, perfectly controlled performance set a new record at 243 m.

Another athlete from Poland, Julia Kozerska won Silver with 233 m performance, and Bronze went to Mirela Kardasevic (Croatia) with 230 m result.

For the static, This Final proved to be a more open field of competitors after the Polish and Croatian teams dominated the Dynamic and Dynamic No-Fins Finals.

Gold Medals went to Veronika Dittes (Austria) with an 8min 7sec performance for the Women’s Gold and Goran Colak (Croatia) with a 9min 45sec performance for the Men’s Gold.

Other Podium places were also there with Silver for Yuriko Ichihara (Japan) and Peter Durdik(Slovakia), and Bronze for Anna-Marie Christiansen (Denmark) and Mateusz Malina(Poland).

Yuriko Ichihara’s (Japan) performance was also a National Record.

2019 : The eighteenth AIDA individual depth world championship come back to Villefranche sur Mer, where the 1st freediving world championship has been created.

It’s always the same team than in 1996 which organize the event.

We’ll you be there ?

Claude Chapuis – Christian Engelbrecht – March 2019