Offical Countdown
Insights to the biggest
sports event of the year in Freediving
Arriving to Budapest
On the night of May 29th, we loaded up our car and began the long trip to Budapest. We had a normal workday behind us and the drive was tiring, but we wanted to arrive in Budapest as early as possible to have the change to get some relaxation and reduce stress before competing. We wanted to register on the first possible opening slot, to have organisational things out of our minds. The sheer scale of the event was starting to slowly sink in, when after registration I had the opportunity to meet the freediving legends like Mateusz “Matt” Malina in real life. After checking in, I had the wonderful opportunity to reunite with Laszlo. He was my very first freediving training buddy from my early days of coaching in Fuerteventura, who now calls Budapest home. Since we had this exhausting drive and a day full of events behind us, some good and restorative night sleep was well deserved and it was a luxury to switch off the alarm for the first time in a few months.
May 31st
On the morning of May 31st, just after waking up, I decided to do a “no warm-up” dry static hold. I clocked an easy 7:00+ without a single hint of hypoxia. My mind was clear, my body was ready, and the confidence boost for my upcoming attempt was massive.
Later that day, we attended the official pool training at the stunning Duna Arena to dial in our buoyancy, followed by an opening ceremony, which we had totally forgotten about because of everything else happening around us, so it was quite spontaneous from our side. With 270 of the world’s best athletes representing over 60 countries, the stage was set and the very final countdown was on.
June 1st precompetition rest day
Instead of participating in the second training on 01.06, we decided to take well deserved rest. As freediving is about relaxation, we decided to get some rest and collect energy for the upcoming days, so we visited Lukácz Therme.
That was also the day to take care of food, previous competition experience showed us that my body best reacts to a nice plate of Ramen soup. Carbohydrates are important to fill energy resources, which are needed for long dives.
June 2nd first day of competition
DYNB is historically my least-trained discipline. I rarely trained with fins after my instructor course, meaning my entire preparation for this opening dive relied heavily on mental visualization. Two months before the attempt, I was repeating the dive over and over in my head. I had set myself certain milestones and was combining them with certain sensations and visualisations. Standing in the start zone, I felt remarkably calm. Right before stepping up, some encouraging words from Polish superstar Magdalena Solich-Talanda settled my focus. My tactical plan was a relatively high AP of 140m, that way I would force myself not to give up early. I packed 3 litres of air and was comfortable with it because of the compression, which was already happening at 3 meters depth of the pool, where I was diving.
The dive itself was the hardest of my life. Even though I had felt relaxed in the starting zone, World Championships circumstances and the higher adrenaline made my contractions start already at 30 meters. Focusing during the first 50 meters was a battle and even though I saw the T, which signals the end of the line, I somehow didn’t react and delayed my first turn.
I slightly bumped the wall, but that small mistake brought me back to full focus on my technique. 25 meters finning in arrow position, to be as streamlined as possible, then gliding for a few seconds doing one strong arm stroke, followed with another long glide to effectively give the legs time to relax. I put my thumbs inside my weight belt to be able to completely relax to upper body, while keeping a streamlined position until the end of the line. After three turns, having reached 150 meters, I felt good and happy with my performance. While being hyper focused on my body sensations, I decided to follow the feelings and continue.
At 175 meters, after the arm stroke I was satisfied with my performance, since I had already passed my AP by almost 40 meters. A strong and controlled surface protocol is also very important for me as an instructor, and on top of that, I set a new PB of 184 metres. After surfacing and a bit of reflection, I realized that my good training plan and well executed dive had paid off: my legs felt light and there would have been room for even more, but in my opinion in freediving safe progression is worth more than a one-time push, and I was anyways very content with my dive.
To recover we visited Husi Ice Bath Budapest for some intense cold therapy, which was very relaxing for mind and muscles. Back to my evening routine, I was craving another bowl of ramen but somehow my electrolytes must have been somehow thrown off during travel and something upset my stomach, which kept me up almost all night. That was definitely not the restorative night sleep I had hoped to get during competition.
June 3rd – Nooooo Fins
DNF is a discipline I love and train extensively, however I set a conservative AP of 115 metres. Despite being physically exhausted and dehydrated from a sleepless night, relaxation in the starting zone with my headphones was going better than expected. The dive was going equally well, becoming the most relaxed dive of my life. My glide was incredibly efficient, using only 4 arm strokes and 4 kicks per 50 meters. My urge to breathe didn’t arrive until 80 meters. But it felt too good to be true after 125 metres considering the terrible night, so I was worrying I might be experiencing early hypoxia. To play it safe and keep my clean scorecard intact, I surfaced early at 133 meters. Upon surfacing, my mind was perfectly clear and I would have easily had 175m+ in the tank, but a clean white card and such a beautiful, relaxed dive was a massive win. It is taking practice to correctly read your body’s symptoms and act according to them, but in my mind this will stay the most beautiful dive of my life so far.
June 4th – Day of studying
On our day off, we took a break from the water and the championships and visited the Budapest Zoo, where my old buddy Laszlo works. He gave us a private, behind-the-scenes tour. Observing the effortless movement of aquatic mammals was the perfect inspiration for the second half of the competition, and the visit was -of course- followed by ramen.
June 5th – My beloved statics
Over the last two years I had focused my training mostly on static, so I had high hopes and confidence in this discipline, knowing that If I do not over pack I can easily hold for 8min+, which could have put me in a podium range. With my wife Laura as coach, our warm-ups were flawless and for the first time during the championships I was able to completely let go any worries, and fully trusted her to guide me through.
Our tactics was that Laura was telling me a shorter time than it actually was during the dive, so it would feel easier during the attempt. But competition static is a mental beast and not comparable with training. I chose a low AP because I wanted to start early in the day and didn’t want the added pressure, but this Plan didn‘t work out. Without a high AP to motivate me, and with adrenaline making every minute feel like two, my mind lost the willingness to fight the contractions early. I decided to surface at 4:29. It was a clean white card, but well below what we knew I was capable of.
The lesson of this dive was that high performance expectations can sometimes also lead to putting too much pressure in yourself, which is not benefitting in freediving. I found comfort in some encouraging words from Florian Dagoury, with whom I exchanged some experiences, and knowing this problem is also affecting the world’s best athletes.
June 6th – The final day
4th discipline and the last one was dynamics with monofin. For my final discipline, I was eager to try out our brand-new custom Cetma monofin. However, with our minds partly on a scheduled afternoon visit to the famous Lukácz Beer Spa, and also feeling drained from the last days, I again set a low AP. Repeating the mistake of the previous day, the low AP meant I lacked the mental drive to push through the hard zone, surfacing comfortably at 104 meters and achieving my fourth clean white card of the event.
To not always take life too seriously and to have a fun event planned after these fully schedules months and last days, we decided to do something unusual. We had an amazing experience at the Lukácz bath with beer spa and a lot of fun preparing the Instagram materials to post later on.
The Closing Ceremony
For the last day during the closing ceremony, we had an amazing opportunity to get to know each other better. Some unforgettable memories and moments were shared with the other divers during eating some great food and listening to some songs of our youth.
We had front-row seats to the most historic freediving event ever organized. The Duna Arena pool witnessed an astonishing feat: a World Record broken every single day of the competition!
The 2026 World Records:
Dynamic Bi-Fins (DYNB): Poland’s Magdalena Solich-Talanda opened the games with a spectacular world record dive of 270m.
Dynamic No Fins (DNF): The legendary Mateusz Malina (POL) extended his decade-long dominance by setting a mind-bending world record of 252m.
Static Apnea (STA): Germany’s Heike Schwerdtner pushed the boundaries of human physiology, claiming a new world record with an incredible 9:39 hold.
Dynamic with Monofin (DYN): Mateusz Malina bookended his historic performance, securing his second world record of the week with an unbelievable 325m swim to take the overall Men’s World Championship title.
The event was also a showcase of global talent, with continental records tumbling on all six continents. Notably, South Africa’s Bevin Reynolds put on an absolute masterclass, setting three African continental records (including a 256m DYN on the final day) to capture the overall Women’s World Championship gold!
While I was focused on my personal goals— including successfully finishing in the top 50 overall in the world with a perfect sheet of four white cards on my first World Championships in Freediving – I am still overjoyed with my results.
My World Championships Results
My Special Thanks
LAURA MÖRTL │ My wife, my coach, and the steady guiding through all my attempts.
FREEDIVE MUNICH │ For pool space, dynamic training, and the best community in Bavaria.
LENI & PRAXIS GERN │ For keeping my physical integrity intact and supporting my recovery
Check each and everyone of them on our Partner’s Website
