Czech Free-Diver Breaks Ice-Swim World Record

Varieties

February 23rd, 7:34pm

Asharq Al-Awsat

Czech free-diver David Vencl reacts after breaking the new world record in under-ice swimming in a lake in the village of Lahost near the city of Teplice, Czech Republic, February 23, 2021. (Reuters)

Czech free-diver David Vencl swam nearly 81 meters (265.75 ft) beneath the ice on Tuesday, breaking the world record after braving the freezing water wearing only a swimsuit. “This will do,” Vencl said after emerging from his minute-and-half swim in water measured at temperatures of 3 degrees Celsius and pumping his fist in celebration. The 38-year-old changed the location for the record attempt to a former quarry in Lahost, 100 kilometers north-west of Prague, from a glacial lake in Austria due to COVID restrictions which made international travel difficult. Vencl, who dropped into the water through one hole cut in the one-foot-thick ice before emerging from another, beat the previous record of 250 feet set by Denmark’s Stig Avall Severinsen in October, 2017 in southern Greenland.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2823706/czech-free-diver-breaks-ice-swim-world-record