The diving athlete's 24-minute record challenges the limits of science

Last year, Aleix Segura, a famous athlete in freestyle diving, set a record of 24 minutes of underwater breathing that surprised the whole world.

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Segura's exact breathing time recorded in Guinness Book of World Records is 24 minutes 3 seconds, while the record set by the International Association for Fastening Skills Development (IADA) is only 11 minutes and 34 seconds.

Segura lay face down in the middle of the pool, holding his breath as long as he could. When doing this challenge, he did not breathe in pure oxygen before he stopped breathing.

When you stop breathing on land, your heart rate will increase, but in the water, the effect is the opposite.

Segura said: "As soon as my muscles relax, my heart beats slowly, I feel like interrupting all connections. Sometimes, I relax to sleep."

But that feeling will disappear when the shrinkage begins. When people hold their breath, hypoxia and carbon dioxide accumulation promote respiratory instincts, which cause the lungs to throb and the diaphragm contract, forcing us to breathe quickly. Segura could hold out to the urge for a few minutes while most normal people would quickly give up.

The diving athlete's 24-minute record challenges the limits of science Picture 1

Segura said that his breathing time during training was longer than the latest record set. During the competition, the pressure of competition affected his ability to relax and negatively impacted the performance.

Segura said his record may be broken but he is not sure about the final limit, maybe half an hour or so. The limits and challenges of scientific knowledge can all be overcome.

In the 1940s, researchers thought that divers could not tolerate a depth of 9m below sea level, the pressure there would break their lungs. But today, free divers can descend to depths of more than 90m without using support equipment.