Shark Freediving

AIDA International has just announced that Bill Stromberg, former president of AIDA, will be penalized for his role in the freediving competition last year where Natalia Molchanova broke two world records; the 101 meter constant weight record and the 90 meter free immersion record.

Some high level judges made a complaint against Stromberg, because of his mixed role as organizer of the competition (where only 3 people inscribed), head judge of the competition and personal (paid) coach by the Molchanova family. And now the AIDA Executive board have accepted the complaint with the following measures:

AIDA Russia / organizer: NONE

President of the Jury (Bill Stromberg)
· 6 months suspension as Judge (1st of May 2010 to 1st of November 2010)
· 9 months suspension as Judge Instructor (1st of May 2010 to 1st of February 2011)
· 6 months probation time on all related issues (1st of November 2010 to 1st of May 2011)

· remark; during the 6 months suspension period it will not be allowed to work in or for a workgroup directly or indirectly working on or with the competition and record rules

Judges of the Jury: NONE

Athlete (Natalia Molchanova): both records will be removed as World Records

While Natalia is mentioned last, she is the one most affected by this decision. And how bad it may be for her, it is the only right thing to do for now. At the time being there was already too much ‘noise’ about these record, and I’m glad that AIDA took the right decision in this one. Nobody questions the skills of Natalia Molchanova, but like everybody else, you must follow the rules and if there is any doubt about this, you shouldn’t be rewarded with the record or in that matter even accept the record. My guess is that Natalia thinks the same of this and will prove her strength to everybody with these disciplines within months, making the records official again.

Ah, I forgot this one! Bill Stromberg his own website, Apneamania, also has a yearly award show and he just announced the 2009 awards. Unlike  the ICARE awards, the Apneamania awards are purely based on performance and not on popularity. I just wonder where he did get the complete ranking of 2009 from, because I can’t find it. But then again, the big numbers of 2009 are proabably all known by now.

Since 1999, the World Freediving Award has been presented to the world’s best freedivers in COMPETITIONS in each category. This Award is unique, and is based on the AIDA World Ranking list from each year.

2009 is our 10th Anniversary, and this years winners are:

Constant Weight,
Natalia Molchanova, Russia, 101m / 101 points, 090925
Herbert Nitsch, Austria, 120m / 120 points, 090411

Static,
Natalia Molchanova, Russia, 8’23″ / 100,6 points, 090821
Guy Brew, New Zealand, 9’03″ / 108.3 points, 090711

Dynamic with fins,
Natalia Molchanova, Russia, 213m / 106,5 points, 090822
Goran Colak, Croatia, 233m / 116,5 points, 091114

Dynamic without fins,
Natalia Molchanova, Russia, 160m / 80 points, 090820
Dave Mullin, New Zeeland, 232m / 116 points, 090711

Constant Weight without fins,
Natalia Molchanova, Russia, 62m / 62 points, 091203
William Trubridge, New Zealand, 90m / 90 points, 091203

Free Immersion,
Natalia Molchanova, Russia, 90m / 90 points, 090927
Herbert Nitsch, Austria, 109m / 109 points, 090406

Some curiosities after 2009 are that Herbert Nitsch now is the first freediver in the world, ever, who sometime during his freediving career has been a World Record holder in all 8th disciplines! Herbert is also the first to copy Pelizzari’s feat to hold WR’s in Constant, Variable and No Limits at the same time. Then it’s interesting to know that Natalia Molchanova is the first freediver, men included, who achieved more than 100 points in each depth, length and time disciplines inside of the same year.

News just came in that Bill Stromberg has just resigned as president of AIDA International. This happens 2 days after he has been re-elected again.

The how and why about it is slowly getting clearer, but for the moment it seems that some threats are being made against Bill. More info when it comes in.

If anybody has to share something, you know how to contact me (jorg.jansen@gmail.com)

News just came in that Bill Stromberg has been re-elected as AIDA president. The complete result list hasn’t been send yet to the Assembly but a reliable source tells me that the presidency is back in the hands of Bill.

What will some of the other candidates do? because some of them mentioned they wouldn’t want to work together with Bill again. Only if there was a fresh start. At the same time I’m also wondering what the AIDA Assembly must have thought, because when you look back at everything that has happened, the last thing I would have thought that would happen was that Bill would be re-elected.

Anyway, congratulations to Bill! I hope the official result list will be made public soon.