Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
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Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
Thibault Guignes is France's National Record holder in FIM, a beast of a freediver, and an all-around awesome guy! Just recently, he took part in the AIDA Freediving World Cup 2021, where he managed to win first place overall. Here's what he had to say about his experience at the competition.
I won the overall ranking of the AIDA Freediving World Cup which is an international competition organized by Andrea Zuccari in his freediving center: Freediving World in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The competition brought 40 Athletes from all over the world, saw many National Records set and three World Records attempted, that unfortunately didn't work.
The overall ranking in the competition was calculated over the four days of the competition. Each meter of depth would get you one point and each discipline can give you points only one time. The best strategy for this kind of competition is therefore to perform in each of the four depth disciplines: FIM, CWTB, CWT, and CWNF. The constant weight discipline is traditionally performed with a monofin, but I am in general more comfortable with my bifins, so I decided to perform the Constant Weight dive with them. By announcing it as a Constant Weight dive and not a constant weight with bifins dive, I could get the points for the overall ranking.
Conditions were good during the competition. You have to keep in mind that with 40 athletes diving on one official line, it takes 6 hours to have everyone diving. It is hard to have consistent conditions for such a long time, so on some days, some of us were confronted with a little bit of current or some waves. That's part of the sport and not always easy to judge if you should perform the dive or not, or turn early during the dive.
I felt very well prepared for this competition. I had performed quite deeper dives in training in the two previous weeks and we decided with my coach, Nicholas Kouvaras, to go for easy dives during the competition. I am trying this year to have an approach really more progressive than the previous year where I was diving very deep all year round. I went for deep dives before the comp in training in a very relaxed setup and really enjoyed my dives during the competition. We had planned three days of competition for me but after those three days, I realized that I had good chances to be on the podium or to win if I would dive the last day. I went for it.
There were several impressive performances in this competition. I will remember Abdelatif Allouach setting a new National Record for France in Constant Weight with Bifins at 111m, so close to the world record. Vitomir Maricic from Croatia with a new National Record in Constant weight without fins at 77m that looked so easy. Peter Klovar also from Croatia with a very strong Free Immersion National Record at 111m. It was really cool to watch 3 World Record attempts, even if they didn't succeed. Alexey Molchanov demonstrated once again he is the boss with very impressive dives. I really enjoyed watching the new generation of French freedivers like Jimmy Jeantot and Mathieu Maraio that shred the Free Immersion podium with me. And finally watching Alena Konecna manage being a full time mom and performing deep dives, setting National Record, and being 2nd overall of the competition was a humbling experience.
Not a single thing on this competition. I had a lot of fun that we shared with many friends in the competition. I received so much support and congratulations from everywhere that I just feel happy and grateful. I would not want to change that!
Doing my best to get there!!!
I am now in Egypt working for one more month before flying to the Bahamas to train and compete in Vertical Blue. This edition is going to be epic, with live coverage from the diveye system and so many great athletes. I will probably head to Kalamata in Greece after that and see how the situation evolves. If the Philippines reopen, my brand new shop is waiting for me on Camotes Island. My business partner Ben and I would definitely go back there. If the Philippines stay closed for longer, you might see me at World Championships in the fall.