IT OFTEN seemed strange to Natalia Molchanova, as she dived down and down through the blue water of the Mediterranean or the Red Sea, that the fish did not notice her. Sharks hovered, but did not approach. Schools of small fish flickered past unconcerned. She noticed one day, however, that a little band was imitating her: swimming not from right to left, but up and down vertically, following (as she was) a long rope let down from the surface.
She did not bother them because her own movements, as she swam, were those of a fish: her arms extended to a point before her, her legs straight, her chest and back sinuously curving, and attached to her feet a tail-fin like a mermaid’s that she flipped to propel her through the water. Her diving suit, her own brand, was a mere 1.5mm thick, thinner than fish-skin. Otherwise, she let the water clothe her.
Such techniques were essential because she was swimming and diving on a single breath, without gas. In this extraordinary sport, free diving, she had 41 world records. She could hold her breath, when floating motionless with her head under water in a pool, for nine minutes and two seconds....
from The Economist: Obituary http://ift.tt/1TvJ6aO
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