Natalia Molchanova would have turned 56 today

Today, 8 May, is the birthday of the greatest legend of women’s freediving – Russian Natalia Molchanova. An amazing athlete, multiple world record holder, coach, mother and above all a person. Her life was tragically cut short during training on 2 August 2015.

Natalia Molchanova is the most successful freediver in the history of free diving. In her career, she set a world record as many as 41 times and stood on the highest step of the World Championship podium 23 times. She has always trained hard. Thanks to that she was able to hold her breath for 9 minutes(!) and go down to the depth of 101 metres using only fins! She could also swim 234 metres while holding her breath.

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She also has many scientific articles on freediving and 2 publications in the form of training manuals, which shows how multifaceted she was in her treatment of her beloved sport. She was the founder and served as president. She has created many training programs and coached freediving enthusiasts around the world.

Privately, she was also a proud mother of two children – Oksana and Alexei (also the Freediving World Champion – ed.). Natalia loved children and always looked forward to the day when she would become a grandmother.

She was an inspiration to a multitude of freedivers, both men and women. She always remained calm and relaxed during competitions. She used to say:

[blockquote style=”2″]”Birth and death are important, but freediving competitions are just fun for adults.”[/blockquote]