On June 14, 2025, in a swimming pool in Rijeka, Croatian Vitomir Maricic held his breath for 29 minutes and 3 seconds. A stunning feat, recorded in the Guinness World Records, but one that will not be ratified by international federations. The reason: the use of pure oxygen before the dive, a protocol prohibited in competition. The 42-year-old champion, accustomed to spectacular challenges, recounts battling pain and spasms during this feat, under the astonished gaze of a doctor and jury. Halfway through, he even considered giving up. But he persevered to the end, at the cost of intestinal bleeding and a severe headache. His name now joins the list of the most controversial records in the sporting world.
An extraordinary but unrecognized feat
For professional freedivers, this record is primarily a spectacular demonstration, not a sporting achievement. By inhaling pure oxygen for ten minutes before his dive, Vitomir Maricic saturated his blood and quintupled his air supply. "With pure oxygen, it's a completely different sport," remarked four-time world champion Guillaume Néry. The AIDA and CMAS federations therefore refused to validate this time, maintaining that freediving should be practiced with normal air, containing 21% oxygen. The official record for the discipline remains held by Frenchman Stéphane Mifsud, who held his breath for 11 minutes and 35 seconds in 2009 without prior inhalation. Vitomir Maricic, for his part, embraces his experimental approach, which he considers an exploration of human physiological limits rather than a quest for sporting recognition.
A controversial but fascinating athlete
This isn't Maricic's first controversy. In 2024, he was suspended for six months by CMAS after performance-enhancing drugs were found in his luggage, although no doping test ever confirmed any wrongdoing. Despite this dubious reputation, the Croatian remains a charismatic figure in freediving, admired for his ability to push the limits of the human body. His doctor, who witnessed the experiment, admits to having doubted the feat was possible, while praising a performance that could inspire medical research. "It's a completely unexplored field for science, opening up new perspectives on the body's resistance and the management of oxygen deprivation," he explains. Already focused on his next goal, Maricic is now aiming for a weighted dive to 160 meters to surpass the record held by Russian Alexey Molchanov. The man who says he "disconnects from the world" underwater always dreams of pushing further, somewhere between feat and provocation. For him, diving remains an art as much as a fight, but also a commitment: that of protecting the Adriatic Sea where he grew up, which he now considers threatened by pollution and warming.
