Alexey Molchanov’s World Record dive to 126 meters (Free Immersion)

On July 13, 2021, in the Bahamas, Alexey Molchanov of Russia dived to an incredible depth of 126m in the discipline of Free Immersion. The most remarkable fact about this new world record is that his performance of 126m/413ft not only replaces his own previous CMAS world record (118m/387ft, set in the 2019 CMAS World Championship in Roátan, Honduras), but also replaces the overall deepest record in this discipline (125m/410ft), which Alexey made at the 2018 Vertical Blue competition. For 8 years, the world records in this discipline belonged to William Trubridge. In 2011, William was the first to surpass the world record of the legendary Herbert Nitsch (120m/394ft), diving 1m/3ft deeper. In the next years, William continued setting the record deeper until 124m/407ft. In Vertical Blue 2017, Alexey Molchanov reached the same depth of 124m, but upon surfacing, lost his tag, ruling out the possibility of a world record.