If you dream to fly in an infinite space, French freediver Guillaume Nery will be a great source of inspiration!
Guillaume has stopped the freediving competitions since 2015, but his legend continues, and it is not by accident … An article about our gifted French national star was inevitable and that can only motivate us with the arrival of the first rays of sun …
What can I say except that he is the most talented of his generation, twice world champion apnea he has beaten 4 times the records of the discipline. Specialist diving in constant weight, like many miracles he reached excellence by accident down to – 139 meters!
He starts Freediving
His life was marked by chance and precocity and it was at age 14 that he discovered that apnea is a fascinating discipline: a virus that will not let him go. It is under the advice of Claude Chapuis and Loïc Leferme that he will move towards the discipline of the constant weight discipline being without ballast nor line but only with physical strength and a strong spirit of course. Thus well framed he went down to – 87 meters and became the youngest recordman in the world: he was less than 20 years old …
The 100 meter bar crossed by our French freediver
In 2004 it is on the island of Reunion that he will beat his own world record down to -96 meters, but it is at home in Nice that in 2005 he will reach the top of our depths! In training he will pass the mythical bar of 100 meters to finally dethrone the world record of Jacques Mayol record holder in discipline No Limits for 2 decades the No Limits is down with a line and go back with a balloon inflated: Guillaume reached a new record and sank to 105 meters.
A tragic accident of apnea: he had the blues
The year 2007 will strongly affect Guillaume because his friend of always Loic Leferme champion of apnea in no limit died in training because of a technical incident. To overcome his anger, he will write a book “Profondeurs” which expresses his misunderstandings and helplessness face to death which took his forever friend.
Record apnea: back in force
In 2008, despite his legitimate reluctance, he made a strong comeback and beat for the fourth time the apnea world record in constant weight and goes down to 113 meters deep. This victory over life will also be shared with Morgan Bourc’his and Christian Maldamé and they will win the world championship apnea in Egypt. In 2011, he won the title of AIDA world champion apnea in Greece and will visit Poseidon at a depth of 117 meters. Between 2012 and 2015, Guillaume passed the bar of 120 m and became vice-world champion in teams.
New direction
This time it is the 08 of September of 2015 that Guillaume will beat his own record during a preparatory competition, it will go down to 126 meters of depth: to 2 meters of the world record held by his friend Alexey Molchanov. 2 days later he announced a descent to – 129 meters, but there was an anomaly from judges : he will descend by accident to -139 meters of depth … This improvised descent gave him a syncope and edema pulmonary, but he will recover without sequela: his time was not over.
Guillaume decided to stop apnea competition.
New Projects
Guillaume is not a young retiree on the contrary, snatching diving from him would be like amputating his dreams from his heart. Now he dedicates his life to communicate his passion by meeting lovers of the sea and progresses his trainees during his master classes. The mermaid of the podium Beyoncé has not resisted the urge to invite him on her video “Running”. Always passionate he is not ready to give up the depths of the ocean because his inner journey will end when he’ll expire his last breath: big respect.
Written by Florence Fifi
