Recently, four Chinese freedivers took part in the Team World Championship held by an international freediving association AIDA (International Association for Development of Apnea) in the southern Greek port of Kalamata, the first time a team from China has competed with other countries.

In the competition, Lu Wenjie, 31, who was born in Changzhou, broke the national women’s record with a depth of 72 meters in the CWT constant wight discipline.

Lu attended Peking University. After graduation, Lu studied in the US for doctorate in medicine. She was certified as a scuba diver during a trip to Hawaii in 2010.

Enamored with the ocean and diving, she moved to Hawaii in 2012 and learned freediving in 2014. She now holds all Chinese women’s records in the sport’s six disciplines.

“Compared with scuba diving, in which you can lap up the underwater world on a long dive, freediving is more about one’s inner world,� Lu says.

Anyone who practices holding their breath will first fell uncomfortable, then anxious and finally, as panic sets in, will give up, she says. However, with determined training most people will accustomize themselves to the feeling and gradually feel more at ease.

“In everyday life when you come up against difficulties you can be full of anxiety, too. Freediving has taught me to deal better with such situations.�

Lu’s personal best for holding her breath is eight minutes, a national record that exceeds that of the record for men, 6 minutes 28 seconds, held by Wang Aolin, who was born in Kunming, Yunnan province.

Lu now works as an independent medicine consultant and teaches freediving part time in the Hawaiian town of Kona.

Freediving is a young sport with an ancient lineage, some early human fishers having dived to gather sponge, abalone, oysters and pearls without breathing apparatus. Modern freediving originated in Europe and grew in popularity over the 20th century.

To many a sport in which some proponents compete at a depth of more than 100 meters sounds dicey to say the least, but with proper training the sport is safe and enjoyable and is catching on in China.