Guinness Record For Freediver With 590ft Swim Under Ice

Story By: Gheorghi CaraseniSub Editor:  Joseph GolderAgency: Golder’s News And Sport

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This is the moment Russian freediver Alexey Molchanov sets a Guinness World Record after swimming 590.55 feet under ice-cold water in 2 minutes and 40 seconds on a single breath.

Russian freediver Molchanov, 32, made the record in the city of Shchyolkovo located in the federal subject of Moscow Oblast in western Russia yesterday (Tuesday).

The video shows the moment Molchanov holds himself up on the edge of an ice hole while he regulates his breathing before submerging into the water as several people stand around him.

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The person holding the camera starts walking up a path, seemingly made for the event, and stops at another ice hole through which Molchanov can be seen swimming in the same direction as the path above him.

The person filming continues to walk up the path going past several ice holes before arriving at the final one where the Russian freediver can be seen above the water awaiting his results.

Molchanov and his team remain silent until a man on his knees can be seen giving him a ‘thumbs up’ signal, apparently informing him that he successfully set the record as people start cheering.

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The 32-year-old freediver now has the Guinness World Record for the longest free dive under the ice in one breath marking his 19th record in the field of diving, according to reports.

The previous world record holder was French diver Arthur Guerin-Boeri, 35, who swam 574.147 feet underwater in 2017.

Local media said Molchanov dedicated the record to his deceased mother Natalia Molchanova, 53, who died in 2015 off the coast of Spanish island of Ibiza while giving private diving lessons.

Natalia was a champion freediver herself with 41 world records and she was the former president of the Russian Free Dive Federation.

She was described as ‘possibly the world’s greatest free diver’ and was the first woman in the world to hold her breath for over nine minutes underwater.

Ice diving is considered to be one of the most difficult varieties of freediving as the swimmers are not able to swim above the water in case of emergency but must be able to return to the nearest prepared exit point.

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