Paris (AFP)
Guillaume Néry, one of the best freedivers in the world, announced Wednesday that he gave up his participation in the World Championships-2019 AIDA, currently competing in Villefranche-sur-Mer, when he was due to return Friday with this competition, four years later. an accident that nearly cost him his life.
"It is with great sadness that I announce the withdrawal of my participation in the AIDA World Apnea Championships that are taking place right now in Villefranche-sur-Mer," Néry said on his Instagram account.
"For personal reasons, I am not in a physical and psychological state to dive in great depth," continued the athlete who had been training for months for this appointment.
The 37-year-old diver was scheduled to take part Friday in his favorite event, the constant weightless descent, for which he broke four world records in his career. His best performance is 126 m.
Néry had not plunged into World Championships since September 2015 and the Worlds in Cyprus where he had come close to death because of a fault of the organization that had sent him to 139 m of depth when he thought to go down to 129 m. A badly posed mark that could have been fatal to him. The champion suffered a syncope while rising, ten meters from the surface, and suffered from a pulmonary edema.
"It took me a long time to digest, did I need to digest or need the accident to make a break and take stock? It allowed me to mature and digest", Nery told AFP last weekend, who came to these Worlds "to give space to what has been my spine since I was 15 years old".
© 2019 AFP