Following the death of Nick Mevoli in 2013, AIDA International embarked on a series of activities to prevent such an issue occurring again.
Kimmo Lahtinen, current AIDA International President, issued the following statement on the AIDA Facebook group today:
Two years ago, the first fatal accident occurred in and AIDA competition, which took the life of Nick Mevoli. Since then, we have been working hard on several fronts to prevent this kind of accident from ever happening again:
1. We have investigated the accident with top level freediving specialists
2. We have improved some safety- related competition rules
3. Per Westin, Aida Medical & Science officer, is currently preparing the conclusive report about the accident, as we now have the autopsy report information available. This end report will be published in December
Now, I’m proud to tell you some significant news – Professor Erika Schagatay´s squeeze study, funded by AIDA, is ready and we now have the opportunity to read her findings.
I would like to thank Robert King for initiating this project along with the AIDA Board, and I would like to thank all the volunteer freedivers who have been participating in this most important study. I would also like to thank Dr. Kerry Hollowell and Dr. Per Westin for reviewing this study on Aida international´s behalf. And especially, I would like to thank professor Erika Schagatay for her work and dedication with the study in our efforts to make freediving a safer sport.
You can read the summary document in PDF format here – AIDA Preliminary SaO2 Study Summary
