20 minutes with the world’s greatest freediver

He has long enjoyed that status but only now is ALEXEY MOLCHANOV reaching a broader global audience, through the new 90min documentary Freediver. His project to break all five of the sport’s depth records in 2023 provided a compelling plot-hook – but, with all his responsibilities, is he starting to play it safer? He discusses that with Steve Weinman – as well as the possibility of adding another 10m depth to those world records

Did you enjoy watching Freediver?

“I loved the film a lot. I think it shows the atmosphere very, very well, it shows the beauty of the sport, some dangers of the sport so that people understand what they can do if they become a freediver – they can have adventures, they can learn how to stay calm and relax better, but also it shows that there are some dangers and why it’s a team sport – there should always be somebody to provide safety for you when you’re under water.

“I think it’s a really well-done movie – I loved it.”

Is it an accurate reflection of your life?

“I would say yes, it’s an accurate reflection of my life. Of course, it’s only part of my life, there’s not enough time in one movie to reflect a whole life, but competitions are a big part of my life. It doesn’t dive deep into my area of work – everything I do to grow the freediving community, which is something I do outside of the sport. 

“The sport is a big part of my life, travelling and competing, but at the same time, based on my mum’s [Natalia Molchanova’s] legacy, her education system, her education method, I focus a lot on growing the freediving community, the movement. 

“This is a bit outside of the movie but it’s my focus, my passion. I love to make sure that there are more and more professional schools around the world that are able to teach people to freedive safely.”

Did you watch the film with your family [wife Elena and son Max] yet?

“Not yet. I watched it in Los Angeles and it was a freediving group – we had 200 people to come and see a closed screening of the movie and it was just freedivers and friends from all over the US. Some people came from New York, some people came from Miami and my sister who is now in London. Yeah, it’s well spread around the world and I’m travelling all the time – I’m now in Dubai, where we have a local community of freedivers who have seen it. 

“Also, because it’s released in the States now and the rights are not all over the world a lot of community members are still waiting for this movie to be released in parts of Europe or Asia etc.” 

I wondered what your son would think of it?

“Max, my son, he loves water and he’s four years old in a month’s time. We swim together and dive together. Sometimes he watches recordings of the competition and he will say: ’I will dive with daddy, I have a mask as well’ – he has a mask and flippers and I’m waiting for him to become a bit older so that we can dive further together, and I’m sure he will love it.”

Would you like to see him have the same sort of career that you’ve had? 

“No, I don’t think I would push him to have the same career as me, not at all. All I can do is just show him this sport and teach him so that he has the skills. This is something I can share really well and make sure he just learns from it and it can be a lesson which he can use for any other area of his life in the future.

“My mum’s approach to me was that she was showing me a lot of different activities that I could test and she allowed me to choose what I would like. 

“At some point when I was 11 or 12 I had been swimming since I was three years old and playing violin since I was four, and I was doing both really well. So my mum said look, what do you want to continue? Now is the time to choose whether it’s going to be water sport or music.

“Then I chose water sport, right, but I have this example for my mum that she had been bringing me to all these classes – and it was also chess classes and table tennis and tennis etc and some martial arts. So you can just allow your kids to do all these things and choose to find their passion.

“So I found my passion in freediving but I don’t know what my son will do. I will just show him a lot of things and let him decide.”

Did the film make you think about yourself differently in any way?

“Yes, I think looking at yourself from the side is always insightful. For me it’s very natural to push the limits and to risk, and in my striving to break more world records sometimes I’m pushing a bit too far.

“And being able to see this from the side and listening to the story according to the view of the director, and how he explains it, I think that’s always insightful. It’s like I see how it looks when it’s put together dramatically, this picture and then footage from my blackouts. Just as a simple recording from the competition it’s not as dramatic as if it’s done at least in the commentary, which makes it much more dramatic.

“It makes me think again, do I want to push as much? Maybe I will try to be a bit more safe and not to stress my friends and family with these failed dives! So it makes me think about that but I don’t know if it will really change me. In order to do world records I have to push, I have to explore my limits, learn from it and adjust accordingly by finding these shortcomings.

“So yeah, it’s interesting and I think it makes me think about these things.”

I certainly got the message from the film that you were starting to think about softening your approach, with family in mind, in terms of perhaps being more safety-conscious than in the past. Is that fair?

“That’s fair, yes. Also because of my son. When I was diving before I was not thinking as much about the safety part. I was always of course careful and I would only take risks if I had a great support team – medics, safety divers etc – but when you have kids it’s an additional thought: OK, do I want to push as hard or am I sure I will survive this dive and make it back safely?

“So certainly in the past few years I started to think about dives differently, and it’s hard. I have some friends who stopped competing and they were not able to to work with this idea that when they have kids, how do they continue to risk their lives? 

“And in freediving, if you dive not to the limit it’s safe, it’s a safe sport with the proper safety team around you, but when you push for the world records then it’s a little bit riskier. So generally I would say that yes, I am more careful right now and but I wouldn’t say it makes me afraid to push for the world records – I still feel this desire in me do that.”

Is it still that CNF [Constant Weight No Fins] record that really rankles – you need to crack William Trubridge’s 102m record?

“For sure, the CNF record is out there and since we finished the documentary I was always working on the technique. I’m sure I’ll be able to do this record in the next, let’s say, six months. I’m ready and as soon as the new season starts next year, next March/April, I will be going after this record.”

So you would still hope at some point to be holding all five depth records at one time? 

“I think the main point of the movie, to hold all five records in one year, was mainly because I was not allowed to compete in 2022 [as a Russian national, because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine] and then I was back to competitions in 2023 and the goal was to get back the world records that I had lost because I was not competing. That’s why it was this idea to get all the records at the same time

“In general, I think for the next seasons I’m not so interested in all five records at the same time – it would be nice and I will try to do that, but I think just even getting single records, like getting that No Fins record in one season and maybe another record in another discipline – one or two world records in a season is plenty. Five world records in a year, it was super-intense.

“This documentary, it was so much travelling, so many competitions. I think for me to feel that I’m balancing my efforts between sports but also growing in the community, I enjoy doing fewer world records. These five records were quite a lot of effort and I think in the next season I will approach it in a more balanced way and try to do only a few.

But it was a very neat angle to have for the purposes of the film. Talking of not being able to compete in 2022, I was wondering how it felt having to compete under a neutral flag in 2023? Did that bother you in any way?

“Freeliving is a very individual sport, it’s less about team and more about individuals, so it felt fine because we all competed as individuals and the community is great and supportive. It wasn’t something that really felt hard or too negative, so I think with the support of the community it was fine.”

It might appear to someone watching Freediver who is perhaps unfamilar with the sport that, even though you’re surrounded by people, it could be quite a lonely or isolated life. Do you think that’s fair?

“I would say that when you pursue those records it’s a small community. There’s a huge community of freedivers who enjoy it as a sport, as a lifestyle activity for adventure, to enjoy the water, but although there’s only a very small group of people who want the records it’s still a very friendly community, and I feel a lot of support.

“I wouldn’t say I feel alone or solitary – I would say that in competitions with all my fellow freedivers it feels like a family.”

Did you get on well with the Michael John Warren, the director of Freediver?

“Yes I had great conversations with him and I think from the very start it was a good chemistry and we were able to openly discuss anything about the movie. I was able to contribute my ideas and I think it was a very nice and collaborative process. So we had a good relationship during the movie and now after the movie we are in touch, so yeah!” 

What’s your personal favourite freediving movie – or perhaps it’s this one?

“Up to now the main freediving movie is still The Big Blue by Luc Besson, and it’s from 1988 but it’s done extremely well, it’s beautiful, the cinematography is amazing. Even now, if you watch it it’s something that gives you this insight into freediving.

“I think one of the best moments in the movie is when the main hero Jacques Mayol [played by Jean-Marc Barr] is walking to do his dive and the camera is filming moving backward. You can see how this freediver is approaching the platform where he’ll be doing the dive and how he’s already in this meditative zone. So this this shot is unique, I think nobody else was able to show the inner state of the freediver approaching the dive.

“It was just an amazing shot. I watched it recently a few months ago – The Big Blue is definitely the one and I think it’s time to do another movie feature film pretty soon!”

Would you like to be involved with that?

“I would love to be involved in the next feature film for sure, yes.”

How do you see your own future beyond competition – as an instructor?

“Already now I do several things in parallel. Competitive freediving is a big part of my focus right now but also workwise I focus on growing the community with my company Molchanovs, based on my mum’s methodology and philosophy and the training tools to train freedivers. We train professionals so that there are more instructors and more schools around the world. 

“So growing the community for me is very meaningful and I want to make sure that there are more places around the world where you can learn freediving safely. That’s my current focus. I’m sure we’ll be doing it for many, many years and contributing to the sport at multiple levels and also organising events, so I think content production, maybe getting into commentaries and doing some projects in this area of freediving is something I’m interested in. 

“Future documentaries might be about competitive sport but can also cover the environmental side of the sport – how freedivers can contribute to solving environmental problems, helping with clean-ups, animal observations etc. There’s a lot of to do in freediving and I think being in the role of producer in the future, that’s something I’m interested in.

Lastly, do you think there is the possibility of a physiological breakthrough that can enable freedivers to go significantly deeper in the future?

“I can see that I would be able to do deeper dives – let’s say, I can understand how to do 10m deeper dives. I would need to prepare, even like spend a couple of months more preparing for the records, and maybe just stay somewhere where depth is better accessible. It’s not easy, it will take me some years, maybe a few years, maybe five years, but I can see those 10m.

“And then every time we push the limit I have this sense of: Can I push a bit more or not? This No Fins record was around for seven or eight years and it was not improved so it shows that, OK, with no fins it is really hard – we might be able to improve by 2m, by 3m but 10m sounds crazy.

“But with monofins, with bi-fins, I can see this – and I know we’re gonna go deeper.”

Also on Divernet: Freediver: Deeper Into Molchanov’s world (film review). Freediver is available now on Prime Video or to buy or rent on digital.