Any co-operation between AIDA and CMAS, the two organisations that both claim to act as governing bodies for international freediving, appears to have broken down with the release of a statement by CMAS (World Underwater Federation).
Referring to “recent developments at the AIDA international freediving event in Bahamas and the following event in Cyprus, which appear to be far from the CMAS standards, we have resolved to discontinue further co-operation with AIDA,” says CMAS.
The rift revolves around the decision by the organisers of the Vertical Blue competition in the Bahamas in July to ban Croatian competitors Petar Klovar and Vitomir Maričić for allegedly contravening its doping rules, as reported on Divernet.
The two freedivers have vigorously denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but CMAS says in its statement: “We were the only ones to take immediate action.”
Vertical Blue had AIDA (International Association for Development of Apnea) judges at the event but in other years has used CMAS judges, asserting that it recognises only “absolute” world records. The competition organisers said at the time that the banning of the two freedivers had been referred to AIDA’s disciplinary committee.
Following the competition, CMAS set in motion a disciplinary procedure against Klovar and Maričić for violating its code of ethics, suspending them from any sports activities under its aegis pending an investigation.
The federation also resolved at this point to provisionally ban use or possession “in or out of competition” of any substances such as sildenafil and benzodiazepines, pending a scientific report. In doing so, it says that it was not only abiding by but had “gone beyond” the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code to combat use of performance-enhancing substances in the sport.
In September, however, despite the cloud over the Croatians AIDA allowed them both to compete in its Depth World Championships in Limassol, Cyprus, where Klovar set an AIDA world record in Free Immersion (FIM), with Maričić ranking second in the same category.
The day after the CMAS statement was issued on 16 October, AIDA announced that “in response to the misinformation circulating in the freediving community” it was organising a meeting at the end of the month to cover “topics such as doping, assembly special vote requests and the 31st AIDA Freediving World Championship in Limassol”.
‘Home to all freedivers’
In its statement, CMAS says that it pledges to “strengthen our commitment to promote freediving under CMAS aegis of clean, safe sport governance… We are ‘the home’ to all freedivers.”
The Rome-based federation had its origins in European spearfishing and scuba diving. It was set up in 1958, bringing together 10 national diving federations with Jacques-Yves Cousteau as its first president, and today claims to be “the sole world governing body for all underwater sport disciplines, fully recognised as such by the International Olympic Committee”.
It says it still hopes that freediving will one day be recognised as an Olympic sport and enjoy the funding that goes with that status.
CMAS claims more than 120 members around the world in the form of national sport federations representing some 3 million divers. Despite AIDA’s use of the term, it also claims to be the only sport federation entitled by the Olympic Charter to name its international competitions “World Championships” and award world titles.
In 2024 it says it plans to launch “the best freediving tournament”, a World Series of Freediving, while adopting “all the necessary means and educational tools” to grow freediving from grassroots to the top levels.
Dedicated solely to freediving, AIDA was set up in 1992 after the film Big Blue had ignited interest in the sport, resulting in multiple record attempts around the world that, according to the association, were carried out with no standard set of rules or common safety guidelines.
“We wanted a strong community and we wanted to create a stable and safe set of rules and guidelines for competitions and record attempts,” it says, and today describes itself as “the single largest organiser of international freediving competitions, rules and regulations”.
Neither CMAS nor AIDA responded to invitations to comment.
Record claimed for Türkiye
Freediver Sahika Ercumen claimed a new CMAS world freediving record on 17 October and dedicated it to the Turkish republic’s 100th anniversary.
The category was one that no longer appears in competitive freediving events but is open to verified individual record attempts, Variable Weight No Fins (VWT-NF). Ercumen broke the Serbian Lena Balta’s record set last year by 1m with her 106m dive at Hatay, having previously set a 100m record in the discipline in 2021.
Also on Divernet: Absolute freediving world records set in Roatan, National passions as 8 freediving world records tumble, Freediver Zecchini smashes bi-fins world record, No fins, 1 breath, 4+ lengths, 7th world record, British freediver breaks 15-year national record
