Rescuers in Spain have given up the search for freedive phenom Natalia Molchanova, believed to have drowned while recreationally diving off the coast of Balearic Sea near Formentera Island.
The 53-year-old deepwater diva with a death wish held numerous world records in one of the most perilous sports ever invented -- freediving -- and could hold her breath underwater for nine minutes in depths over 300 feet.
How the Russian-born competitive diver actually drowned Sunday is yet unknown since her body couldn’t be recovered; and some fear that, because of the strong oceanic currents where the accident occurred, she might never be found.
"It seems she'll stay in the sea," said the missing diver’s son Alexey Molchanova. "I think she would like that," he added.
Moscow’s “freediving superstar” will be a hard act to follow, but many critics who feel the dangerous competition she starred in should be curtailed (if not outlawed) also hope her untimely death will serve as a deterrent too.
Deepwater freediving has long been considered a sport out-of-bounds, because the strain it puts on even the most experienced swimmer’s body can cause them to blackout and, of course, to die if they don’t regain consciousness in time to resurface.
That’s exactly what happened to Natalia Molchanova’s celebrated and equally suicidal predecessor Nick Mevoli during a Bahamas freedive competition in 2013.
The 32-year-old Mevoli, however, was retrieved from the water still alive and transported to a hospital where he later died from the pulmonary edema he suffered while attempting to set a freedive record without any diving apparatus.
His is thought to be the first extreme underwater-swimming casualty, but, as freedive phenom Molchanova’s own deep sea disappearance this month proves, will certainly not be the last.
