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Olympic freediving in the early 1900's?

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CEngelbrecht

Well-Known Member
Oct 31, 2002
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I recall reading somewhere that there was a dynamic-like freediving event represented in one of the early Olympic Games around 1900 or 1910. I haven't been able to find anything on the web. Does anyone know more?
 
I think Bill knows more. I recall him describing it (maybe on DeeperBlue) a while back, I think the event was both a time and distance event, ie. points were awarded for time underwater as well as distance covered.

Cheers,
Ben
 
Found it in an old thread:

I most say that the "Olympic Dicipline" would be more fun:

Freediving in the Olympics 1900, in Paris, they had a special dynamic event on the Olympic program. They gave the competitors two points for each meter swum and one point for each second that the swimmer was able to stay under water. (you are not allowed stay still in this event, you have to move all the time)

/B

And a bit more detail on Wikipedia Swimming at the 1900 Summer Olympics - Men's underwater swimming - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting to plot your strategy... longer time or distance? The bottom 2 people did 22 and 23 seconds... honestly, what were they there for, filling up the spare lanes??
 
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To Chris:

Freediving in the Olympics,
In Paris 1900, they had a special dynamic event on the Olympic program. They gave the competitors two points for each meter swum and one point for each second that the swimmer was able to stay under water. Now we call this "the Olympic Discipline" (you are not allowed stay still in this event, you have to move all the time)

Result from the Olympic, 1900 in Paris,

1. Charles de Vendeville, FRA, 60m in 1'08".4, 188.4 points
2. André Six, FRA, 60m in 1'05".4. 185.4 points
3. Peder Lykkeberg, DEN, 28.5m in 1'30".0, 147 points
4. de Romand, FRA, 47.5m in 50".2, 145 points
5. Tisserand, FRA, 30.75m in 48", 109.5 points
6. Hans Aniol, GER, 36.95m in 30", 103.9 points
7. Menault, FRA, 32.5m in 38".4, 103.4 points
8. Louis Marc, FRA, 34m in 32", 100 points

Peder Lykkeberg of Denmark would have won the event, having stayed underwater longer than anyone else, but lost "because he swam in a circle." ....this dane's !

...btw

This is a very nice dicsipline that I would like to have a test on in an AIDA event. ANY organizer that could add this to the program?

/B

ps. ..and did you know that Sweden had their first OFFICIAL Swedish Championship in Dynamic and Constant Weight 1905!
 
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Well... Nordic Deep comes up with at least one new discipline a year ;) ,
maybe we can try it... Give the modern Danes a chance to win back their reputation!!
 
Some quick numbers put the last three dynamic WRs above 700 points, for the sake of comparison.

But should we be getting Dave to swim any slower than he does already? His dynamics take longer than his statics usually do anyway!
 
Sorry for picking this up :) But I'm doing some article about history of free diving, can someone tell me a bit more about that Sweden CWT and DYN competition? Any any other historical events apart from this mentioned here...

Tnx
 
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