• Athlete, business manager, Arnaud Jerald is one of the few people in the world to experience freediving.

  • At only 25 years old, the Marseillais has already marked his discipline with several records.

  • At the start of the week, he set a new record at 117 meters, a performance beaten this Thursday by a competitor.

The adage says that there are three kinds of men: the living, the dead and those who are on the sea. What about those who practice deep freediving such as Arnaud Jerald, professional freediver? The 25-year-old Marseillais established at the beginning of the week in a competition in the Bahamas a new world record by descending to 117 meters in constant weight bi-fins, that is to say without other assistance than his fins to descend and ascend. . A record that lasted only four days, the Russian Alexey Molchanov, legend of the discipline and 15 years his senior, reached 118 meters on Thursday. For

20 Minutes

, Arnaud Jerald tells about his discipline, his feat and what you feel with more than 100 meters of water above your head and little oxygen in the lungs.

What is the life of a professional freediver like?

It is a life of both an entrepreneur and an athlete.

For example, I have the same physical trainers as Florent Manaudou with whom I train at the Cercle des nageurs.

On the other hand, unlike other athletes, I manage my business, manage my meetings with sponsors and the media part with my teams of press officers when I operate them.

There is a whole process at the level of the image and the company, which takes a very very important part, and which I adore.

How do you earn a living?

It has been three years since I saw it.

There must be ten of us in the world to live on it, with completely different salaries.

We are not remunerated by the Federation or by clubs, but I make a living from it thanks to my sponsors and the conferences I give to large companies, in particular on the subject of safety processes.

How is it at less than 117 meters deep?

Here [in the Bahamas, where the competition took place], it's pitch black from 60 meters.

However, my eyes are open, my gaze on the line to know if I am sinking straight.

The

Big Blue

era 

, when we go down with weights and come back up with air balloons, no longer exists.

What is the difference between 112 meters (his previous world record, in 2020) and 117 meters?

Is that a lot five meters?

It is in the head that it is played.

It depends on the physical margin, the mental margin, and how you see the numbers.

Are there important levels?

Round numbers, even numbers, the 100-meter mark… But I have the advantage of never being attached to numbers, because they can be a limit.

How do you know when you got to "the bottom"?

I have a watch with an alarm telling me I'm coming soon.

Then there's a ball that stops me with the lanyard and I can't go any lower, even if I want to.

What do you think before you dive, down, down and up

The idea is to try to detach as much as possible from the performance, to have good memories during the descent.

For that, I try to have music in mind that I listen to several times in the morning.

Right now it's

Within

, from Daft Punk.

Basically we think much faster than on the surface, because the body goes into survival mode and must be able to act quickly.

So you think about a lot of things at the same time, it's quite pleasant but also disturbing because you have to keep good thoughts and not too bad ones.

Have you ever had thoughts of diving like "I forgot to close the skylight and it's going to rain"?

(Laughs) That, not really.

On the other hand, sometimes I have friends in mind and I say to myself “Oh firecracker, it's been a long time since I called him, I would have to call him” and it goes on and on.

I do not know why.

Do you have the intoxication of the depths?

How is it ?

I had it when I started freediving and then I set up a protocol with my doctors to avoid them and control my diving from A to Z.

It's like getting up very quickly from a sofa, your head is spinning, your gaze begins to narrow, the impression of being in a dream with lots of thoughts that you don't control and that happen to them. one after the other.

But sometimes it can be a nightmare and it feels like you can't go back up.

Have you ever had a faint?

No, and precisely I'm happy with that, because it shows a beautiful image of sport where you don't have to go through syncope to set world records.

How did you get started?

I discovered apnea through spearfishing.

From the age of 7, my father took me hunting in the creeks.

At 16, he introduced me to pure freediving and it was from there that I said to myself I would be a freediver.

It was also my first sensations, my first thirty meters: it's very pleasant to be underwater to find yourself in the lead with yourself.

An interesting thing to discover at this age.

My shyness and the difficulties at school made me concentrate on the gaze of others and going underwater allowed me to see with my eyes and not with the gaze of others.

Want to aim for 120 meters?

Not at the moment actually.

I first want to go back to these depths, repeat them to see how I feel and gain experience.

Because they are still new to me this year.

If I see that I am really comfortable and that I want to go deeper I would go, otherwise I will have to train a little more.

Nice

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Sport

Freediving: Marseillais Arnaud Jérald breaks the world record in twin fins at a depth of 112 meters

  • Apnea

  • Sport

  • Interview

  • Marseilles

  • Record

  • World record