The Observer has published a detailed investigation into how doping allegations, athlete welfare concerns, and fragmented governance continue to shape competitive freediving. The feature, Inside the Deep, Dark Heart of Freediving, is accompanied by the launch of a new podcast series, Deep Water, which explores the culture and controversies surrounding the sport.
The 2023 Vertical Blue Incident
A significant portion of The Observer’s reporting revisits the high-profile controversy involving Croatian freedivers Petar Klovar and Vitomir Maricic at the 2023 edition of Vertical Blue (VB), one of the sport’s premier depth competitions.
According to VB organisers and subsequent reporting by outlets including DeeperBlue.com & Divernet, a luggage search conducted upon the athletes’ arrival revealed several controlled or prohibited substances under VB rules. As a result, both athletes were barred from competing at VB 2023 and from future editions of the event.
Following the incident, the international governing body CMAS opened a disciplinary case. In January 2024, CMAS fined both athletes €5,000 and imposed a six-month suspension for breaching its Code of Ethics. The ruling centred on possession of substances deemed capable of influencing performance or endangering athlete safety.
Crucially, publicly available information, including reporting from the four-part DeeperBlue investigation, confirms that official urine doping tests taken immediately after the luggage search were negative. No positive test result for any banned performance-enhancing drug has been published. The core issue, as documented, is therefore possession of substances, not a confirmed doping-positive case.
Despite the controversy, both athletes later competed under AIDA rules at the 2023 AIDA Depth World Championship, highlighting the longstanding regulatory disconnect between freediving’s major bodies.
Athletes and Officials Speak Out
The Observer article includes perspectives from several prominent voices.
- William Trubridge, organiser of Vertical Blue, discusses the challenges of enforcing athlete safety and anti-doping protocols without a unified global regulatory standard.
- Thibault Guignes, a leading French depth diver, offers insight into the competitive pressures at the elite level and how the community perceives the ongoing controversy.
- Maricic presents his account of the events and the fallout that followed. Klovar refused to comment for the piece.
The podcast series expands on these themes, exploring how freediving has evolved from a niche discipline to an increasingly high-performance sport – and how that shift exposes gaps in governance, testing capability, and athlete oversight.
Continuing the Investigation
The Observer’s findings intersect with issues documented in DeeperBlue’s own reporting during 2023-2024. Our four-part series examined the evolving doping landscape, discrepancies between VB, AIDA, and CMAS rules, and the lack of a universally accepted anti-doping framework for freediving. Many of the structural concerns highlighted by The Observer echo those raised in this earlier work, including:
- inconsistent testing protocols
- unclear jurisdiction between governing bodies
- limited resources for independent anti-doping controls
- community confusion over what constitutes a banned substance
These systemic gaps contribute to the tension now playing out at the highest levels of competition.
Future Implications for the Sport
The Observer’s reporting is likely to amplify calls for reform in several areas:
- Unified anti-doping standards across VB, CMAS, AIDA, and other bodies
- Wider access to accredited testing, especially at major depth competitions
- More precise definitions of banned substances, aligned with WADA or a freediving-specific code
- Improved communication between organisers, athletes, and regulators
As freediving continues its transition into a global competitive sport, the pressure for transparent, consistent, and enforceable rules will only increase.
