Freediving is under pressure
- williamtrubridge
- Sep 23
- 4 min read
Every sport reaches a point where it must choose between integrity and spectacle.
Freediving is standing in front of that crossroads right now.
It’s a zeitgeist moment that involves doping rules, safety practices, and a struggle between the quiet ethos of freedivers and the amplified noise of those chasing recognition.
Four years ago, suspicions emerged that doping was creeping into the sport. I wrote this article as a plea to reason.
By 2023, anecdotes of pre-dive Normabel (Croatian brand of benzodiazepine), off-season steroids, and poolside rucksacks bulging with pharmaceuticals, could all no longer be ignored. So at Vertical Blue 2023 novel antidoping measures were implemented.
The idea was simple: expose and then block the violators, and in doing so reunite the freediving community around common values of fairness and respectability.
Instead it turns out that, while freedivers are a quiet and reserved breed, the violators and their acolytes had more stamina in the social media shouting match. Many purists, understandably, put their heads back in the water to escape the fuss.
In freediving we have two governing bodies. The IOC-official body, CMAS, were swift to act, sending a clear message via suspensions and extra drug-testing. Meanwhile the previously cherished AIDA organisation, born in the south of France out of amour du jeu, became infiltrated at its executive level by doping apologists and anti-antidoping appointees – yes, those two 'antis' do cancel each other out.
Never mind that AIDA detected benzodiazepines in 7% of urine samples at the 2024 Pool World Championships, and never mind that the AIDA Assembly (body of all AIDA Nationals) ordered a Special Vote on the matter, which was then stalled and unconstitutionally refused by the AIDA Executive.
The ‘freejuicers’ had their safe haven. But safe from what?
In the 1960s, two deaths in cycling, attributed in part to amphetamines, catalysed more robust doping control in sport. In 2003 a Major League Baseball player died while using Ephedra, and because of this the drug was added to the banned list. Tramadol was banned by WADA after a rugby player died from overusing the drug in 2019.
I hope that it doesn’t take a similar tragedy to elicit meaningful measures against use of PEDs (whether on the WADA list or not) by all organisations involved in freediving.
However drug abuse isn't the only current danger to the sport.
In 2013 the freediving community learned in the most painful way, through the loss of the kind-hearted Nick Mevoli, that recurrent lung squeeze and barotrauma is not natural in freediving, and should not be concealed or normalised, let alone embraced.
Yet today we find a self-titled 'maverick,' president in both the CMAS and AIDA branches of Croatia, and running for a position in the AIDA Executive Board, while publishing (in a scientific workshop) statements such as:
“From our experience, the next day [after squeezing] is usually good to go.”
“There is not much correlation for a risk of recurrence unless the diver is mentally weak or overly emotional.”
“It would be a little bit demystified if everyone would get more relaxed about squeezing."
The same serial-squeezer recently posted video footage of his bloodied buddy, during one of many blackout/squeeze episodes, attempting to pass off as a safety demonstration what is ostensibly a campaign to increase Instagram followers.
If we see another fatality due to someone replicating such disregard towards lung injuries and blackouts then these ‘mavericks’ will have more blood on their hands than they do after their own dives. Many premium freediving locations (Bahamas, Dominica, Roatan, Kalamata, Camotes) have now banned them from their premises, and others are following suit.
For Nick’s sake, we cannot afford to unlearn how dangerous it is to ignore our body’s warning signs.
At the same time, safety is an issue in the sport for other reasons.
As depths increase, cases of DCI (decompression illness) are becoming more prevalent. The recent incident at the CMAS World Championships highlighted the importance of having thoroughly planned and rehearsed protocols in place, as well as medics who are versed in hyperbaric medicine.
At last year's event, I sat across a table from three competition medics who told me they knew little about DCI of any kind, far less in freediving. Lack of confidence in this team was part of my decision to not attend this year. It doesn’t appear that an attempt was made to fill the blind spot, and as a result a father of two remains in a state of hemiparesis.
AIDA was quick to capitalise, claiming on its social media, "Limassol is now the safest place on earth." Then a few days later, in training with the organiser of the upcoming AIDA WC event, a line was set 10m too deep, resulting in an athlete's blackout and squeeze. This was an exact replica of the same mistake at the same venue in 2015, which caused freediving legend Guillaume Nery to descend to 137m in a 129m record attempt, resulting in blackout, squeeze, and ultimately his retirement from competition.
These repeated and avoidable incidents show us the importance of vigilance and planning of every aspect that relates to safety, and of never allowing anything to compromise it.
Freediving can be a dangerous sport, but the biggest dangers are those of human hubris: not learning from mistakes, not listening to others, and deceiving oneself and others in order to chase goals of the ego.
“Man is not punished for his sins, but by them” – Elbert Hubbard
Yet there is hope. In the wake of these crises and grabs at attention there has been a great outpouring of sentiment from freedivers about what the sport truly means to them.
Alenka Artnik • Walid Boudhiaf • Harry McCahill • Zahraa ElHusseiny • Thibault Guignes • Davide Carrera • Mirela Kardasevic • Simona Auteri • Estrella Navarro • David Mellor • Stefan Randig • Francesca Koe
I encourage everyone to read at least a few of these beautiful eulogies to freediving, as a reminder of what the sport really represents.
And I will add one more: freediving is the most beautiful way to discover your true nature. When asked why she thought I dive, a wise old lady in the deep south of the Bahamas, who had never even seen a freedive, replied,
"He want to see what he is."
