Arthur Guérin-Boëri, five-time freediving world champion, broke his own record.
The French covered 120m under the ice, in 2 degree water, with a 2mm wetsuit and without fins.
Friday morning, he returned to the scene of his performance to tell us about his feat ...
Congratulations, Arthur Guérin-Boëri.
How do you feel after your apnea from 120m swimming under the ice?
I am still in Finland.
As I speak to you, I am on Lake Soonannen.
Right on the spot where I broke my world record yesterday!
I have my feet on the ice and I admire a magnificent panorama.
I savor my performance!
How do you analyze your performance?
In the pool on a big breaststroke performance like this, I want to breathe every 60 to 75 m.
But in two-degree water like here, I wanted to breathe from 20 or 25 m.
Either much earlier.
The mental work is much more consequent.
But it was much less complicated than I had imagined, I was very surprised by the ease with which I swam these 120m.
It was really nice.
Pleasant?
The water temperature was only two degrees ...
I wasn't that cold.
With my level of cold acclimatization, I manage to stay 20 minutes in two-degree water.
Yesterday these three minutes of swimming, plus the two minutes of preparation in the water before, went without problem.
To prepare for this record, I trained for a year.
I swam in the sea in all seasons to accustom my body to the decrease in temperatures and I swam regularly in lakes at altitude.
It's very healthy!
Diving in this Finnish lake is a change from the training basin to the swimming pool, right?
It's so much more fun than training in France.
Here I swim 50 cm under the ice in a lake where the water is very clear.
It's so pure you can drink it.
There is no noise, we find ourselves in a cocoon of ice.
I swam in a lunar atmosphere, with a diffuse, almost milky light that pierces the ice.
These are sensations that few people have been able to experience.
It's actually very pleasant, absolutely not anxious.
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Could you have done more?
Yes, I had the impression that it was almost easy… I went out very “fresh”, as we say in apnea.
I was not marked, I had a level of oxygen in the blood still very suitable.
Over the distance, I could have afforded to go 20m more without too many problems.
Already have a next challenge to take up?
Yes !
It will be a year from now in Canada, in a setting that will be different, this time it will be without a combination.
I will try to pass the 103m won last week by Finland's Johanna Nordblad.
It would be good if I did 105m!
Any advice for those who want to go freediving?
It's a sport where you have to tame your primary need to breathe.
It's a survival reflex!
It requires learning, but also fighting spirit in surpassing oneself.