Carlos Coste is a Venezuelan professional free-diver. He started his training in apnea and Free-diving in 1996, and got his first national record in 1998. In October 2002 he broke his 1st Official World Record. In October 2003, he became the first human to achieve a Free Immersion dive of more than 100 meters, certified by AIDA World Record and Guinness World Records. He also was the first freediver to pass 100 meters in constant weight, reaching a 102 meter immersion in Cyprus 2004. Coste became First AIDA Depth Individual World Champion. He won the World Championship making a new World Record in Constant Weight -105m, celebrated in Nice, 2005. He broke the AIDA world record for variable weight free-diving, with a 140 meter immersion in the Red Sea, Egypt, on May 9, 2006. This record was superseded by Herbert Nitsch, on 7 December 2009 at Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas. In 2010, after a long relationship, he married his manager Gabriela Contreras (Gaby)
Natalia Vadimovna Molchanova was a Russian champion free diver, multiple world record holder, and the former president of the Russian Free Dive Federation. She has been described as "possibly the world’s greatest freediver".
Herbert Nitsch is an Austrian freediver who has held world records in all of the eight freediving disciplines recognised by AIDA International. He is the current freediving world record champion and "the deepest man on earth". This title was given to him when he set a world record in the "No Limit" discipline at the depth of 214 meters. To date, he has achieved 33 official World Records across all freediving disciplines, and one world record in the traditional Greek discipline of Skandalopetra 107 m (351 ft). He surpassed his own No Limit depth with a dive in June 2012 to 253.2 meters, suffering injury in the process.
Constant weight (CWT) is a freediving discipline recognised by AIDA, the International Association for the Development of Apnea, in which the freediver descends and ascends using their monofin and/or with the use of their arms without pulling on the rope or changing their ballast; only a single hold of the rope to stop the descent and start the ascent is allowed. Constant weight is one of the eight disciplines considered for international competition, the others being constant weight bi-fins (CWTB), constant weight without fins (CNF), static apnea (STA), dynamic apnea without fins (DNF), dynamic with fins (DYN), free immersion (FIM), and dynamic apnea bi-fins (DYNB).
William Trubridge is a New Zealand world champion and world record holding freediver.
Constant weight without fins (CNF) is an AIDA International freediving discipline in which the freediver descends and ascends by swimming without the use of fins or without pulling on the rope or changing his ballast; only a single hold of the rope to stop the descent and to start the ascent is allowed. Constant weight without fins is the depth discipline of freediving that is most challenging, because of the physical effort needed to swim without assistance.
Dynamic apnea is a discipline of competitive freediving, also known as competitive apnea. Dynamic apnea covers two of the eight competitive freediving categories recognised by the AIDA International : dynamic with fins (DYN) and dynamic without fins (DNF). Both disciplines require breath held dives where the diver travels in a horizontal position under water under their own power without aid/physical contact of a static surface, with the exception of the pool wall when done indoors. The records can only be recognized in pools of 25m or greater.
Sara Campbell is a British freediver.
Vertical Blue is a freediving competition which has been held annually in The Bahamas at Dean's Blue Hole since April 2008 by freediving world record holder William Trubridge. It is an AIDA International or CMAS in 2021 judged competition and has been the venue for multiple world and national records for athletes coming from countries all over the world.
Alexey Molchanov is a Russian champion freediver, 24-time world champion, world record holder, and freediving promoter. He is also president of the "Freediving Federation" association, president of AIDA Russia, head of freediving school named in honor of Natalia Molchanova, and designer and engineer of the freediving equipment brand Molchanovs. Alexey is a son of Natalia Molchanova – multiple champion and world record holder in freediving.
Elisabeth Kristoffersen is a Norwegian freediver and the current president of AIDA Norway. She won the silver medal in the AIDA World Championships 2007 in Maribor, with a dynamic dive to 174 meters.
Goran Čolak is a Croatian free-diver.
Kate Middleton is the current New Zealand record holder in the free immersion discipline (FIM) and constant weight with fins (CWT). She is the third-deepest woman in the world and Vice World Champion Freediver. She owns a yoga and freediving resort in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, where she trains and teaches.
Flavia Dias Eberhard, known as Flavia Eberhard, is a Brazilian free-diver, presenter of TV series "APNEIA", freediving instructor trainer, international fashion and underwater model, conservationist, and TV personality. She has nine freediving records including a South American Absolute Record on the discipline of free immersion. Eberhard also works with underwater videography and underwater photography with Sea Dragons audiovisual and has presented documentaries for the TV and film festivals.
Derya Can Göçen is a Turkish world record holder female free-diver and school teacher.
Alessia Zecchini is an Italian freediver who set world and Italian records in freediving.
Sofía Gómez Uribe is a Colombian freediver and civil engineer. She holds six national records in three different freediving disciplines, a Bolivarian Games record set at the 2013 Games in Trujillo, Peru, that won her a gold medal in the Women's individual dynamic apnea free-diving event, and a Pan-American record in dynamic apnea with equipment.
Estrella Navarro-Holm is a marine biologist, model, and national record-holding free diver from Mexico. She is the first Latin American woman to win a free diving medal for holding a single breath for more than six minutes.
Constant weight bi-fins, denoted by the acronym CWTB in competition notation, is a competitive freediving discipline wherein the freediver wears a pair of bi-fins to descend along the line with or without the use of his arms. Pulling on the rope or changing ballast will result in disqualification; only a single hold of the rope is allowed in order to turn and stop the descent and start the ascent. The diver is prohibited from using a dolphin kick; doing so will result in disqualification of the day's dive.
Andriy Yevhenovych Khvetkevych is a Ukrainian world-class freediver, world and Ukrainian six-time record holder in three of the four deep disciplines in freediving: CWTB, FIM, CNF.
