If any female freediver has a chance of diving deeper than a male, Slovenia’s Alenka Artnik is probably the one that could do it.
Writer Xan Rice, in a recent piece on longlead.com, profiles Artnik and her journey from near-suicidal depression to holding women’s world records in more than one freediving discipline.
This past July at the Vertical Blue competition in the Bahamas, Artnik set a new women’s world record in the Constant Weight (CWT) discipline with a 122m/400ft dive, only nine meters less than Russia’s Alexey Molchanov.
As Rice writes:
“With just nine meters of breathing room between him and Alenka, Alexey now has competition in the monofin event. What she said to him in jest six years ago, at the very start of her ocean-diving career, no longer sounds like a joke.
— One day I’ll break the record.
— Really?
— Yes, your record.”
Check out the full story — which features photos and video by Daan Verhoeven — here.
(Featured image credit: Daan Verhoeven)
