Attending last September's Ruler of the Deep event in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, the freediver had set women’s records of 101m in Constant Weight, where the diver fins down and back; and 90m in Free Immersion, involving a pull down and back up the dive rope.
Now, however, competitive freediving’s governing body AIDA (International Association for the Development of Freediving) has revoked the records on account of “significant conflict of interest issues relating to the presiding judge”.
The problem involved a procedural irregularity rather than any question over the physical validity of Molchanova’s dives.
AIDA has stated that “no questions were raised relating to the athlete’s integrity or her ability to achieve the performances in question”.
Unacceptable, however, was the fact that the competition’s organiser and head judge, Bill Stromberg, formerly President of the AIDA board, had also worked for Molchanova as a coach and advisor.
“Even though AIDA does not doubt the athlete’s sportmanship, the board feels that AIDA, out of respect for past and future record holders in the discipline, cannot approve these records due to the coach-judge situation,” said the organisation.
The Constant Weight world record now reverts to Briton Sara Campbell, for her dive to 96m off Long Island in the Bahamas in April last year.
Molchanova still holds the Free Immersion world record, for her dive to 85m off Crete, Greece in July 2008.
Molchanova’s four other women’s world records are 62m in Constant Weight No Fins; 225m in Dynamic Apnea (horizontal pool swim), set just two weeks ago in Moscow; 160m in Dynamic No Fins; and 8min 23sec in Static Apnea (pool-based breath hold).
Regarding her latest setback, AIDA commented: “The Executive Board, noting Natalia’s extraordinary achievements in the sport of freediving, expect that she will soon put this matter behind her by meeting or exceeding those performances at a valid world record-status event.”
Related links
AIDA International
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