The Deepest Diver in the History of Free Diving Goes Below the Ice

When the champion free diver and multiple world-record holder Alexey Molchanov stepped onto the streaked ice on Lake Baikal in southern Siberia on March 16, the sky was cobalt blue. The sun illuminated the surrounding mountains, the wind was light, and the air a balmy 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 Celsius).

It was the perfect day for a swim.

But this wasn’t the typical polar bear plunge. Molchanov, 34, hoped to swim 80 meters, or approximately 262 feet, beneath the one-meter-thick icy surface and back up on a single breath. In the process, he would break yet another world record: the deepest free dive under the ice with fins.

Dressed in a thick, blue wet suit and gloves, he slid into a monofin then slipped into a square, 3 meters by 3 meters, cut in the ice, where he clipped onto a thin rope that disappeared into the inky water.

He deployed a technique that his mother, Natalia Molchanova, the most decorated free diver of all time, first developed and taught, and Molchanov has taken worldwide. She called it deconcentration. Instead of taking in the scene, he detached from it, both visually and psychologically.

He focused on taking long, deep, rhythmic breaths until his heart rate slowed and he entered a meditative state. Then he sipped the air through pursed lips until his lungs were fully inflated, from his diaphragm to the tiny air pockets between and behind his shoulder blades. Finally, he ducked below the surface, and disappeared.

Nearly 100 spectators and a throng of Russian news media waited on the surface above him.

The Dive

This dive was more difficult than most. His wet suit was seven times thicker than normal, which made it more challenging to kick against the positive buoyancy found in the first 10 meters, or approximately 33 feet, of depth.

All that effort demanded he tap into his finite supply of oxygen. To keep warm, he wore a mask, something he typically avoids on deep dives, which meant he had to hold his nose between his thumb and forefinger to equalize instead of relying on a nose clip. Plus, cold water makes equalization of the sinuses, when a diver funnels air into the sinuses to keep them pressurized to prevent head pain and injuries like burst ear drums, extremely challenging.

Within 20 seconds he’d reached 20 meters (66 feet) and puffed his cheeks out to create a vacuum for the remaining air in his lungs to fill. On typical dives, he stores this “mouth-fill” and uses it to equalize without having to worry about leaks. But in water that was between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius, around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, his lips numbed quickly, and he had to clamp them shut with his fingers, his thumb and forefinger on his nose, his middle and ring fingers on his lips.

On the slow drop toward 80 meters, the sound of crackling ice rippled through the water, the barometric pressure cranked up, and it was painfully cold. His job was to accept it all and remain relaxed no matter how awful it felt or what happened next.

He arrived at the illuminated bottom plate, grabbed a black tag, and with an ever-dwindling oxygen supply, dolphin-kicked back toward the hole in the ice.

For the past four years, Alexey Molchanov has been the undisputed best all-around free diver in the world. He came of age traveling the world, from competition to competition, with his mother, who set 41 world records and won 23 world championship titles, despite not discovering the sport until after she divorced at 39 years old. She never sought sponsorship and supported her family by teaching the sport she loved.