Jacques Mayol

Jacques Mayol was a French freediver, born in Shanghai in 1927, who held many world records in the sport and helped carry it from a small circle of enthusiasts into wider public view. As a child he spent summers in Japan, where he first saw a dolphin, and later, working at a Miami aquarium, he formed a bond with a dolphin named Clown that shaped his approach to breath-hold diving. He and the Italian Enzo Maiorca became friendly rivals in the no-limits category, and Mayol was no-limits world champion eight times between 1966 and 1983. On 23 November 1976 he became the first freediver to reach 100 metres, and in 1983 he reached 105 metres at the age of 56. His philosophy, set out in his book Homo Delphinus, drew on yoga breathing and relaxation. His life, with Maiorca, inspired Luc Besson's 1988 film The Big Blue, on which he was a screenwriter. He died in 2001 on Elba.