Alexis Patri 2:00 p.m., April 17, 2022, modified at 2:03 p.m., April 17, 2022

Before beating the world record for deep diving four times, Guillaume Néry was a beginner freediver.

It was a simple challenge between friends who wanted to overcome boredom in the back of a car that pushed him into this discipline, as he explained on Sunday at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet.

INTERVIEW

He was able to sublimate an immature ego wound.

It was because of a little vexation as a teenager that Guillaume Néry turned to freediving.

The one who has since broken the world record for deep apnea four times and publishes 

Aquatic Nature looks 

back on the trigger of his career on Sunday at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet, on the occasion of his invitation to the program 

Il there is only one life in life

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>> Find Isabelle Morizet's shows every weekend from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in podcast and replay here

When he was 14 years old, Guillaume Néry took a trip in the back of a car with Éric, his tennis friend.

The two teenagers decide to indulge in a freediving contest to quell boredom.

Guillaume Néry holds his breath months long as his friend and loses.

"At the start, it's a completely banal story. Except that it scratched my ego a little and my thirst for challenge, challenges, performance", recognizes Guillaume Néry.

“I put myself completely naked in my bed”

"I'm going to try to do that at home, and like that, next time, I'll beat him," said the teenager to himself.

He then decides to practice holding his breath as long as possible.

With tests of techniques for the less amateur.

"I was quite interested in natural science as a subject. In addition, it was at a time when we were studying the human body and the lungs. I was looking for information", explains the freediver.

"I discovered that the skin breathes. So I opened the windows and I put myself completely naked in my bed, thinking to myself if the skin breathes, I was going to win a few seconds."

Since then, Guillaume Néry has professionalized his technique and has become world record holder several times.

But it is from this simple challenge that his attraction for freediving was born.

"It had become a bit of an obsession, this story," recalls the former teenager.

"But it's a bit my temperament: when something is close to my heart, I deploy absolutely everything."