David Vencl reportedly spat out blood and popped open a bottle of champagne after spending nearly two minutes under the icy water with no wetsuit

Free-diver David Vencl is the new holder of a world record after plunging 170 feet below the icy surface of Switzerland’s Lake Sills.

The 40-year-old Czech athlete set the record in water that hovers between 34F to 39F by carving a hole into the ice-covered surface and descending on a single breath — and without wearing a wetsuit.

Instead, Vencl wore a regular bathing suit, a white swimming cap and goggles.

He proved his feat by retrieving a small sticker that had earlier been placed at the bottom of the lake. After completing the record dive in 1min 54sec, Reuters reported that he spat blood and then opened a bottle of champagne. Hospital staff later confirmed he suffered no serious injuries, added Reuters.

Promoter Pavel Kalous told the outlet that freediving in cold water gave Vencl a unique challenge.

“There is nothing difficult for him to be in cold water… Lack of oxygen is something normal for him. But this was completely different because it’s really difficult to work with the pressure in your ears in cold water,” he said, adding that “If you combine all these three things: cold water, lack of oxygen and the problem with working with pressure, it’s something very unique.”

Vencl is no stranger to swimming in near-freezing conditions. He already holds another Guinness World Record for swimming 265 feet along the length of a frozen Czech lake in 2021.

To prepare for that record, he told Guinness World Records he trained his body in a “barrel of salt water, which sometimes had minus 4 degrees (24.8F). I dived naked in that water, including my head, and held my breath for up to 5 minutes.”

MARTIN DIVISEK/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Freediving can be extremely dangerous as the human body is pushed to the limits by athletes who try and reach incredible depths without the aid of oxygen equipment. There are various categories for world records, but the deepest ever is called a ‘No Limit’ dive. Herbert Nitsch holds this world record for his 830 feet effort in Greece’s Santorini in 2012. Nitsch said after the dive he experienced severe decompression sickness as a result.

There have been multiple well-publicized deaths in the freediving community due to the extreme conditions the divers put their bodies through. In Dec. 2022, Spanish diver Miguel Lozano was dramatically rescued after blacking out while attempting to break a freediving record in the Caribbean.

“Black out rarely occurs, but when it happens, as part of our sport and with the appropriate protocols, as you can see in the video (as it would happen in other sports like climbing) I had no consequences,” he captioned the video on Instagram, which showed multiple support divers rapidly bringing him to the surface.

Source: people.com