A Croatian broke a world record and held his breath underwater for almost half an hour

Recently in the Croatian city of Opatija, Vitomir Maričić performed a feat that stunned the global freediving community. The Adriatic Freediving member broke the previous record of his compatriot Budimir Šobat, who held his breath for 24 minutes and 37 seconds in 2021.

The record attempt took place in a three-metre pool at the Bristol Hotel in front of a hundred spectators. Maricic used oxygen support - he breathed pure oxygen for 10 minutes before diving, which allowed him to significantly increase his breath-hold time.

After the 20th minute everything became easier, at least mentally," Maricic told Divernet.

At the same time, the athlete noted that physically it was getting worse, especially for the diaphragm due to contractions.

The freediver took on the record not only as a personal challenge, but also to raise awareness about ocean conservation. His achievement was twice as long for the maximum breath-holding of dolphin-apalines and almost equalled that of seals.

When humans hold their breath, specialised cells in the brain and neck called chemoreceptors monitor the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen. When CO2 builds up, the need to breathe increases and the diaphragm begins to contract involuntarily. It is at this point that untrained people usually give up.

By comparison, the world record for breath-holding without oxygen support is only 11 minutes and 35 seconds, showing the critical importance of pre-training with pure oxygen.

The average person can hold their breath for 30-90 seconds, but trained apneists are able to exceed these numbers dozens of times through special training of the body and mind.

The previous record holder Budimir Šobat is also from Croatia, making this Balkan country a true centre of world freediving. Both athletes used oxygen support, which is standard practice in this record category.