A Croatian freediver has achieved a seemingly impossible feat.
On June 14 of this year, Vitomir Maričić took one last gulp of pure oxygen and lay down in a pool. There he remained, cool as a sea cucumber, for 29 minutes and 3 seconds.
That’s officially the longest held voluntary breath, according to Guinness World Records. Maričić beat the previous record holder by nearly 5 minutes.
Nearly half an hour without air is mind boggling. That’s roughly twice as long as a bottlenose dolphin is thought to hold its breath. With that sort of performance, Maričić could give a harbor seal a run for its money.
With each breath, a seal can replace 90 percent of the air in its lungs – but our species can only replace 20 percent. To keep up, we need more breaths to fill our lungs with fresh air.
To get as much oxygen into his body as it could possibly carry, Maričić inhaled pure oxygen for 10 minutes before the attempt.
This increased the oxygen dissolved in his blood plasma, which is a crucial reservoir for the body’s tissues.
On an Instagram reel, Maričić explains that he started his record-breaking attempt with nearly five times more oxygen in his body than usual. Without that, he never could have lasted so long.
Even when breathing normal air, however, the Croatian athlete’s abilities are impressive. He can hold his breath for up to 10 minutes and 8 seconds.
The Guinness World Record for unaided breath-holding is 11 minutes and 35 seconds, and it was set by Branko Petrovic of Serbia in 2014.
To put that in perspective, the average person can hold their breath for between 30 and 90 seconds.
According to the official Guinness website, Maričić attempted the longest held breath in June to bring attention to ocean conservation.
Having already racked up a few related world records so far, perhaps Maričić will next turn his eye to Petrovic’s record.
