The news hit the freediving world like a bomb. Natalia Molchanova missing, presumed dead, freediving off Formentera, near Ibiza. This kind of thing just isn’t meant to happen.
Known as the Queen by the adoring freediving community, Natalia is undeniably the most inspirational freediver the world has ever seen. With 41 world records to her name, as well as being 23-times world champion in both pool and depth disciplines, she had an inner and outer strength that seemed to make her unstoppable.
She ruled beneath the waves in the sport of freediving; diving into the ocean on just one breath. Many people look at us freedivers and think we are crazy, risk-taking adrenaline junkies, with no regard for our own lives. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In order to freedive, the athlete must learn to control their response to stress to lower the heart rate. I like to refer to freediving as underwater meditation. It takes the same mental focus, deep state of calm and peace, and ability to block out all distracting thoughts to dive deep, or hold our breath for long periods of time.
Freediving for me is a spiritual path. It is where we have the opportunity to observe ourselves in absolute truth. The ocean reflects back whether we are living in line with the pure nature of human beings: that of complete harmony with our surroundings, without the need to grasp, control or fear anything. It goes way beyond being a sport, as it relies on much more than just our physical prowess. Every freediver tell you that the perfect dive is all about emotions, not the depth achieved; it comes about when we are able to let go completely and surrender to the moment. It is utter bliss.
In 2007, as a relatively unknown athlete, I was as surprised as anyone to find myself going head to head with Natalia. I set three world records in three days and each time the freediving legend was the first person to swim up, embrace and congratulate me on my dives. I was deeply touched and surprised that she made the effort to do this. It is this sentiment that I have heard again and again over the past few days – how compassionate and supportive she was to everyone; from the complete beginner to her closest competitor, her desire was to see others succeed.
The facts around what looks like was Natalia’s last dive remain unclear but it seems that she may have been teaching two novice students on a rope set to 20m and was herself making relatively shallow training dives to the 30s or 40s while they were resting. While diving without safety goes against our first rule never to dive alone, this in itself should not have contributed to her disappearance: a woman who can dive to over 70 metres isn’t even touching the boundaries of her mental or physical limits on these relatively shallow depths.
There are risks inherent in everything we do the moment we step out of our front door. The ocean obviously presents risks that most people don’t have to consider, but for freedivers it is no more threatening than the park at the end of the road. But tragic accidents do happen.
Of course in competitive freediving the risks increase, but for trained athletes, they are considered risks. We announce the depth we wish to attempt before making it, set the guideline rope to the same depth to ensure we don’t overshoot our target and are attached to the rope by a lanyard at all times. We are supported by trained safety divers who meet us on our way back to the surface, as the final part of the dive is where we run low on oxygen and is the most risky part. We freedivers are proud that, in the 23 years of competitive diving, we have suffered only one fatality.
Natalia’s disappearance seems to have been a freak accident that, unless her body is found, cannot be fully explained. If there are lessons to be learned, it will be to strengthen the case for wearing lanyards on all dives. Some divers believe they impede performance, others may be complacent; hopefully this will now change.
But this shouldn’t take away any of the pleasure of freediving. I am sure that it won’t deter the competitive community, including Natalia’s son Alexey, who also holds four world records, from continuing to explore the boundaries of human potential.
Natalia, who set a world record of 70m with no fins on her 50th birthday in order to demonstrate to women that age is no boundary to living your dreams, told me recently that she was amazed that the older she got, the easier her world records seemed to become. She was keen to research why this might be. Sadly it seems we may never know. But she would want us to continue the work for her and enjoy the ocean. As she once said: “Freediving is not only a sport, it’s a way to understand who we are.”