The Guinness Women's Record for freediving in a cave has been set!

Listen to this article Japanese woman Ai Futaki has set a Guinness record for freediving in a cave. The dives took place in the Chikin Ha cenote, Mexico. Ai said she didn’t break the record to see where the limits of her ability were. “I did it simply to show the beauty of cave swimming

ByMarcin Pawelczyk

Published: February 18, 2011 - 09:54

Updated: July 22, 2023 - 20:19

The Guinness Women’s Record for freediving in a cave has been set!

Listen to this article

Japanese woman Ai Futaki has set a Guinness record for freediving in a cave. The dives took place in the Chikin Ha cenote, Mexico. Ai said she didn’t break the record to see where the limits of her ability were. “I did it simply to show the beauty of cave swimming without any additional equipment, using only my own lungs.“

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In preparation for the record breaking, Ai Futaki did two months of training in Japan with her coach, Mr Endo. Ai said this about her coach and preparations: “He is a great swimming coach. We worked on changing the proportion of my body weight so that I had more muscle and strength. The aim of the training was to make me swim like a fish. The exercises focused more on technique than on breathlessness. To be honest, I didn’t do any breath-holding exercises.”

Before the attempt, the athlete was blessed by a local priest in a special ceremony, after which she set two new Guinness records. The first is to swim a distance of 100 metres using a monoplane. The second record is a distance of 90 metres in a cave swum without using fins. The current holder of this record in the men’s category is Carlos Coste, who swam a distance of 150 metres using a mono fin.