#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Beyond the Arctic Circle on the 69th parallel from August 31 to September 3, the first freediving competition Putorana Depth 2023 will be held.
The championship will be held on the fjord lake Lama, in the northern part of the Putorana plateau, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.
The competition was organized by the Norilsk Development Agency (NDA) and the Freediving Federation. The partners of Putorana Depths 2023 are Capital Group, Norilsk Nickel, Neralah Park Hotel. Information partner is SPORTS.ru.
Lama is considered a unique natural location: here, in one of the most beautiful and mysterious places in the country, the strongest world-class freedivers – Guinness record holders, world and European champions, the Russian national team members and Russian championships multiple winners – will come. Among them there is the 31-time freediving world champion and Guinness record holder for ice diving in lake Baikal Alexey Molchanov, the Guinness record holder for static breath holding in ice water Maria Olshevskaya and the European champion and vice-world champion in freediving Mikhail Bryantsev.
The festival program includes lectures and master classes from freediving gurus, training dives and trekking trips to the plateau.
Competitions will be held in two key freediving disciplines – breath-hold diving without additional equipment: FIM (Free Immersion – free diving with a breath-hold on a cable) and CWT (Constant Weight – deep diving in paddles with constant weight).
There are many unique places for freediving in Russia, says 31-time world champion, president of the Freediving Federation Alexey Molchanov:
“We are gradually mastering them, holding test dives and competitions, festivals and educational programs. In March 2023, the Freediving Federation held the world’s first ice freediving competition in the White sea”.
The next point is lake Lama, surrounded by the untouched nature of the Putorana plateau. Alexey Molchanov also recalled that Putorana Depth 2023 would be the first freediving festival beyond the Arctic Circle, a unique experience for athletes and an impetus for the development of this sport in Norilsk.
“This year, the NDA, together with the Freediving Federation and with the Nornickel’s support, launched a project to develop this new sport for Norilsk and Taimyr as a whole. We conducted the first freediving training course for 15 local athletes. Some of them will take part in the Putorana Depth and get their first serious competitive experience in freediving”, said Maxim Mironov, the NDA director.
According to him, it was not by chance that Lama was chosen for the competition: the lake is distinguished by its great depth (more than 300 meters) and low water temperature (+2 degrees Celsius at a depth of 10 meters). At the Putorana Depth they plan to set records for diving with a breath-hold in cold water.
“I am sure that freediving will help promote a healthy lifestyle and become another way to develop the tourism potential of our territory”, the NDA head summed up.
Also, we reported that the construction of a visitor center was completed on lake Lama, and the first Russian tourists visited the unique route Hatanga – Severnaya Zemlya.
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Text: Marina Horoshevskaya, Photo: putorana.land, Alena Hakuy and Alexander Akivis / provided by the Norilsk Development Agency
