Stig Severinsen: “The Guy Who Doesn’t Breathe”
Denmark’s 47-year-old Stig Severinsen broke the Guinness World Record for lengthwise underwater swimming with a length of 202.0 metres (662.73 feet). He achieved this record in open water in the Sea of Cortez near Mexico.
Severinsen is the record holder of four AIDA freediving world records by incorporating yoga and his understanding of physiology in freediving. Two Guinness World Records were achieved in 2010: he swam 236 feet (72 metres) under the ice in March of that year wearing only swimming trunks and goggles, surpassing Wim Hof’s March 2000 record by 47.6 feet (14.5 metres); and in April, after inhaling pure oxygen, he held his breath for 20 minutes and 10 seconds in a shark-filled tank at the Kattegat Centre in Grenada. In May 2012, Guinness World Records awarded him the record of “Longest time breath held voluntarily (male)” for holding his breath for 22 minutes; this record was accomplished with the water-cooled to 30 ° F (-1 ° C) in a tank at the London School of Diving. He held the record until February 28 2016, when Aleix Segura broke it. In April 2013, at Qorlortoq Lake in eastern Greenland, he set two new world records for ‘longest breath-hold swim under ice’: 500 feet (152.4 metres) while wearing a wetsuit and monofin, 2 minutes, 11 seconds and 250 feet (76.2 metres) the following day while wearing swim trunks only.
After achieving all these records, Stig decided to forgo any more freediving record attempts and instead teach. He decided that he would come out of retirement, (2020) train and go for this record, which he just completed in Mexico.
Severinsen was picked as “The Ultimate Superhuman” on the Superhuman Showdown Discovery Channel network, and a documentary about him, Stig Severinsen: “The Guy Who Doesn’t Breathe”, was made in October 2013 for broadcast on Discovery and Search in the UK.
