Yesterday on the island of O’ahu at the University of Hawaii Performance Freediving alumnus Kyle Gion set his first US record in the freediving discipline of DYNAMIC APNEA (distance in a pool). Having delivered a clean performance of 184 meters (nearly four 50 meter lengths) in a time of two minutes and :22 seconds Kyle made history. Gion has been preparing for this apnea achievement over the past several months with his coach Craig A. Gentry, who is also a PFI trainer.
Kyle attended PFI’s Intermediate level course in Hawaii at the age of 15 in July of 2010. At the age of 16, Kyle was the youngest athlete to compete in US Freediving history at Freedive Paradise. At the age of 17 he was selected to represent the United States for the team World Championships in Nice, France as on alternate on Team USA.
Now 18 years old, Kyle is the youngest athlete in US freediving history to set a national record. The previous US Men’s National Dynamic record of 175 meters was held by Ron Smith of Arizona, who set that distance at the aforementioned 2012 Team World Freediving Championships in France. (The objective of DYNAMIC APNEA is distance, not duration.)
Dr. Jan Prins of Swimming Biomechanics has been conducting a bio-mechanical analysis of Kyle’s technique since the beginning of his national record training. Those analyses will be coming soon. DeeperBlue.com congratulates Kyle on his new US Men’s national title.
Photo © Craig A. Gentry
(all reporting and images provided by Craig Gentry)
