Freediving at Olympics ??????????

[Tommy Engfors]

Just a note regarding the blackout thing.

These do happen in at least one olympic event from time to time. Weightlifters occasionally end up resting too long with the bar accross the throat, resulting in BO. The competitor drops the weight, topples over and people rush in to help. It doesn't appear to really shock anyone. Every person on the planet knows that no oxygen leads to loss of consiousness. I can't see how it would be too upsetting. This is the future, 2004, and we have all kinds of shocking (read stupid) shows on the telly. People eating worms, or punching eachother (Jerry Springer) for instance.

 

[Alun]

i think the big difference is that the general public would realise that a blacked out freediver would drown and die without immediate help. also BO in freediving is pretty common, not a 1 in 500 event.

 

[sinkweight]

I'm a mere embryo when it comes to real freediving. Having said that, you might not take my input with much consideration.

I reserve freediving, among other stoic "sports" (which I really don't consider a sport, more of a DRIVE, rather), with hopes that it doesn't become an Olympic event. I know a good deal of you feel differently and I can imagine why.

There is much to be gained by having the world turn its eyes to such a type of activity. Commercial support would be greatly increased, as mentioned previously in this thread. More science would be dedicated toward possibly reaching currently unachievable depths, and setting new goals as well as a new array of obstacles for the human body to endure.

What of the spirit and soul of freediving? Sure, the popularity of freediving and related events would snowball, but isn't this a steady enough pace.

I can speak as an American when I say how sick I am of too many people rushing to a sport or hobby because of it elite status, danger, and notoriety...ultimately adulterating it with an overpopulous wave of unprofessionalism, vanity, an excruciatingly embarrasing intolerance to risks (following in a hyper-liberal whitewash of new, unecessary rules and regulations, ironically inceasing the risks by lowering the bar for beginners and making the original professionals prone to liability). It happened with our general aviation community...but that's a whole other thread in a whole other forum on a whole different website.

To summarize, there would be no prouder day than to have freediving recognized for what it is. One of the many imposing problems though, would everybody take it for what it really is? And if they did, would we have a bunch of lemmings all blindly running off the cliff after us?

I'd say keep it how it is. We seem to be of a different race. A different mindset. A (and i hate how T.V. has raped this term) reality-based...better yet, real-life-conscious group of people. Not atheletes per say, rather a dying breed of true humans that are bound by soul, spirit, and challenge from the deep. I would imagine this is just my view, among many others as well.

I'd hate to see something equaled to the Golden Age of Aviation, dwindle down to a horribly-commentated Olympic event, covered inbetween the trampoline, kayak, ping pong, and egg-in-spoon relay race. I have no doubt of the crowds reaction to the significant dangers of apnea events, be it dynamic, static or depth. Shock or intrigue, the indescretion of broadly televised mishaps, accidents, or tragedies that entail apnea and its participants are sacred to me and many others.

If there were a way to seep the idea of our emotional bond among the elite, into the rest of the usually overstimulated society (speaking mostly about America and its commercial counterparts) without breaking the unspoken, mutual bond with the drive and nature's ebrace, I'm all for it.

I guess I could've saved everyone a heap of time and just asked...

Is the world ready for that kind of attention? Or more importantly, are WE?

 

[Adrian]

Originally posted by sinkweight

I'd say keep it how it is. We seem to be of a different race. A different mindset. A (and i hate how T.V. has raped this term) reality-based...better yet, real-life-conscious group of people. Not atheletes per say, rather a dying breed of true humans that are bound by soul, spirit, and challenge from the deep. I would imagine this is just my view, among many others as well.

I think what binds us together - and sets us apart from other people - is our love for beauty of the sea, our passion for freediving and the challenges involved as you said.

Apart from that we are very normal people with run of the mill activities, beliefs and attitudes that range over the whole spectrum of possibilities and do not set us apart from anybody else. Nobody is special simply because they freedive. For me someone is special if they do good to humanity above and beyond the call of duty - or in whatever measure that's available to them, or if they are truly wise, which is a combination of love and knowledge.

How many of those are there? Precious few.

Adrian

 

[Tommy Engfors]

Originally posted by Alun
i think the big difference is that the general public would realise that a blacked out freediver would drown and die without immediate help. also BO in freediving is pretty common, not a 1 in 500 event.

Very true, but a BO'ed freediver would get immediate help out of the water. There would be no time to drown. They have introduced refuling in F1 for instance and that is far more dangerous (there have been spectacular fires).

I am not very sure of my viewpoint here, I am just saying that maybe the audience would accept a BO under certain conditions (?).

In any case, there is still the possibility of running a short, fast dynamic event (it has some good arguments in this thread). It would probably look good - fins or no fins.