Stig Åvall Severinsen (born 8 March 1973) is a Danish

freediver Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breath- ...

. He is a four-time world freediving champion and holder of multiple

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

, such as being under water for 4 years. He also wrote ''Træk Vejret – mere energi, mindre stress'' (2009), published in English in 2010 as ''Breatheology – The Art of Conscious Breathing''.

Background

Severinsen has a degree in biology and a PhD in medicine. He began experimenting with holding his breath as a child at the bottom of his parents' pool. He started swimming at the age of 6 and was awarded National Champion four years in a row at 9, 10, 11 and 12. In 1993–2003 he played

Underwater Rugby Underwater rugby (UWR) is an underwater team sport. During a match two teams try to score a negatively buoyant ball (filled with saltwater) into the opponents’ goal at the bottom of a swimming pool. It originated from within the physical ...

, and was a member of the Danish national team. During university studies in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Spain in 1998–99, he played

underwater hockey Underwater hockey (UWH), (also known as Octopush in the United Kingdom) is a globally played limited-contact sport in which two teams compete to manoeuvre a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing team's goal by propelling ...

on the Spanish national team. A fascination with long breath holds under water drew him to the world of free diving. In 2010 he founde
Breatheology
- an online platform teaching optimal health and performance via breathing, breath holding and mental training techniques.

Career

Combining

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

and his knowledge of

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

in freediving, Severinsen became a record holder of four

AIDA ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...

freediving world records. He achieved two Guinness World Records in 2010: in March that year he swam 236 feet (72 meters) under ice wearing only swimming trunks and goggles, exceeding Wim Hof's record of March 2000 by 47.6 feet (14.5 meters); and in April, after inhaling pure oxygen, he held his breath for 20 minutes and 10 seconds in a tank full of

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

s at the Kattegat Centre in

Grenaa Grenaa (or Grenå) is a Danish town and seaport on the east coast of the Jutlandic peninsula. Tourism, education and commerce are important sectors in the economy of Grenaa. It is the only larger town on Djursland. Grenaa is the municipal seat, a ...

. In May 2012 he was awarded the record of "Longest time breath held voluntarily (male)" by Guinness World Records for holding his breath for 22 minutes; this record was achieved in a tank at the London School of Diving with the water cooled to 30 °F (-1 °C). He held this record until 28 February 2016, when it was broken by

Aleix Segura Aleix Segura i Vendrell (born 28 November 1986, Barcelona) is a Spanish multiple World Champion freediver both under AIDA and CMAS official structures. Through spearfishing he developed his apnea skills and started competing in apnea (freediving ...

. In April 2013 in Qorlortoq Lake in east

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

, he set two new world records for "longest swim under ice - breath held": 500 feet (152.4 meters) while wearing a wetsuit and

monofin A monofin is a type of swimfin typically used in underwater sports such as finswimming, free-diving and underwater orienteering. It consists of a single or linked surfaces attached to both of the diver's feet, emulating the fluke of Cetacean ...

, taking 2 minutes, 11 seconds, and the following day, 250 feet (76.2 meters) wearing only swimming trunks. He announced that these would be his last record attempts and he would now concentrate on teaching. In 2020, Severinsen came back from retirement to break another record. He swam 202 meters on a single breath at La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico on 26th of November, 2020. Severinsen was chosen "The Ultimate Superhuman" on the Discovery Channel programme ''Superhuman Showdown'', and a documentary about him, ''Stig Severinsen: The Man Who Doesn’t Breathe'', was produced for broadcast on Discovery and on Quest in the UK in October 2013. In ''Breatheology'' Severinsen proposes that through working with the breath, a link can be created between body and mind that enables a person to control

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

, increase energy, perform better physically and mentally, alleviate pain and improve health.

AIDA Freediving World Records

Personal bests

References

External links