Aleix Segura i Vendrell (born 28 November 1986,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

) is a Spanish multiple World Champion

freediver Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breath- ...

both under

AIDA ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...

and CMAS official structures. Through

spearfishing Spearfishing is a method of fishing that involves impaling the fish with a straight pointed object such as a spear, gig or harpoon. It has been deployed in artisanal fishing throughout the world for millennia. Early civilisations were famil ...

he developed his

apnea Apnea, BrE: apnoea, is the temporal cessation of breathing. During apnea, there is no movement of the muscles of inhalation, and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged. Depending on how blocked the airways are (patency), there may ...

skills and started competing in apnea (freediving) in 2011, reaching in competition during his debut year breath holds over eight minutes, and over ten minutes in the following seasons so far, achieving three World Champion titles in

static apnea Static apnea (STA) is a discipline in which a person holds their breath (apnea) underwater for as long as possible, and need not swim any distance. Static apnea is defined by the International Association for Development of Apnea (AIDA Internat ...

until now. He competes in both swimming pool and depth disciplines in the sea but is currently specialized in static apnea, which aims to hold the breath underwater for the longest time. In 2016 he achieved also the official

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. "Biggest Lungs Ever (male)" in static apnea with previous pure oxygen breathe up reaching 24 minutes and 3.45 seconds in an event broadcast on TV, during the Mediterranean Dive Show 2016, becoming the longest official breath hold ever. He is the only person ever to have simultaneously held the AIDA, CMAS, and Guinness World Record static apnea titles. He currently combines his freediving career with his professional activity as an architect in Barcelona.

Early life

He was born in 1986 in

. As a child he learned to freedive in the sea during his family vacations in

Costa Brava The Costa Brava (, ; "Wild Coast" or "Rough Coast") is a coastal region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Whilst sources differ on the exact definition of the Costa Brava, it can be regarded as stretching from the town of Blanes, northeast o ...

, the northern coast of

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

. He practiced several sports prior to competitively develop his aquatic skills, football, taekwondo, judo and basketball until high school. Simultaneously he started spearfishing which became the reason for him to further develop his apnea capacity, leading later on to the competitive purpose in 2011, after finishing his Architecture studies in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, which is his current job combined with his freediving career.

Titles

* 2011 – Vice World Champion CMAS in static apnea, Tenerife, Spain * 2012 – Vice European Champion CMAS in static apnea, Antalya, Turkey * 2013 – Vice World Champion CMAS in static apnea, Kazan, Russia * 2015 – World Champion AIDA in static apnea, Belgrade, Serbia * 2015 – World Champion CMAS in static apnea, Mulhouse, France * 2016 – Guinness World Record in O2 static apnea, Cornellà, Barcelona, Spain * 2016 – World Champion AIDA in static apnea, Turku, Finland * 2017 – Vice European Champion CMAS in static apnea, Cagliari, Italy

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segura, Aleix People from Barcelona 1986 births World record holders Spanish freedivers Living people