FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

US Women’s Freediving Team Takes Over First Place in AIDA Team Freediving World Championships.

The 2010 AIDA Team Freediving World Championships static apnea event brought the US Women’s Freediving Team to the top of the pack.  The US women won the static apnea portion of the championship positioning them in a great spot to secure a medal in the competition coming into the final event in dynamic apnea with fins. 

Jessica Wilson, Annabel Edwards, and Andrea Kawabata make up the US Women’s team.  Their performances in static apnea moved them from fifth to first overall.  The static event took place at Okinawa General Playground Pool on the island of Okinawa, Japan.  This is the second portion of the three-discipline event.  The dynamic apnea with fins event remains to be contested.  The depth diving event took place earlier in the week.

The US Men’s Freediving Team is also participating in the event.  The team consists of Leo Muraoka, Ron Smith, and Ben Weiss.  The US Men’s Team is holding in fifth place overall.  All US athletes have performed consistently and each has received white cards on all of their performances marking successful performances. The team is being coached by DeeDee Flores and Kanako Wada.

“We are very proud of our performances.  Everyone has done so well.  We hope to be able to keep it going in dynamic.  We are very thankful of all our fans back home and everyone so kind to support us.  Go Team USA!”, stated the team.

The AIDA Team Freediving World Championships is a biannual event that tests nations to send their best three male and female athletes to compete as a male and female team.  Three athletes and one alternate make up each team.  Three freediving disciplines are contested in depth, time and distance of apnea.  This year’s event is being hosted by AIDA Japan and Apneaworks on Okinawa, Japan. Daily updates and results can be viewed at http://www.aida2010.net/.

The depth event is known as Constant Weight and requires the athlete to freedive with fins or a mono fin on a single breath to a prescribed depth and return with a tag.  The time event is a pure breath hold for a maximum time with the athlete lying face down in a pool, known as Static Apnea.  The distance event is known as Dynamic Apnea and requires the athlete to swim on one breath with fins or a mono fin as far as they can while submerged in a pool.

The team championships differs from most freediving competitions because it awards the team with the highest point total from three athletes in three disciplines rather than individual performances.  This requires teams to plan and strategize performances to ensure that the maximum point totals are achieved and to not risk disqualification by any team member.  Disqualification in even a single discipline results in zero points for that performance and can move a team down the ranking list dramatically.  The team that is able to field three athletes that do well in all three disciplines rather than one or two tends to rank very well. 

The USAA is a nonprofit association founded on the democratic representation of freediving within the United States and internationally.  Founded in 2003, the USAA consists of an active membership dedicated to furthering freediving in the United States and abroad. For more information about the USAA, the U.S. National Freediving Team, and membership please visit www.usfreediving.org.

The International Association for the Development of Freediving, AIDA, is the international sanctioning body for freediving, individual and team competition, and freediving world record attempts.  For more information about AIDA please visit http://www.aidainternational.org.

Images available upon request. 

Contact Information:

Grant W. Graves, President
United States Apnea Association, USAA

3642 Seahorn Dr.
Malibu, CA 90265
Email: makog@aol.com
Phone: 310-560-6104

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