Umberto Pelizzari

Umberto Pelizzari is an Italian freediver, born on 28 August 1965 in Busto Arsizio in Lombardy, and is widely considered one of the best of all time. In his era he was the only person to set world records in every existing freediving discipline. He began as a child in competitive swimming and moved to freediving at 19. In 1990 he set the constant weight record at 65 metres, in 1991 his first variable weight record at 95 metres and the same October a no limits record of 118 metres. Through the 1990s he had a celebrated rivalry with the Cuban Francisco Ferreras that became the 2001 IMAX film Ocean Men: Extreme Dive, and in October 1999 he reached 80 metres in constant weight and 150 metres in no limits. He helped found AIDA in 1994, won AIDA World Championship titles with the Italian team in 1996 and 2001, retired in 2001 with a variable weight record of 131 metres, and later became a professor, television host and author of a freediving manual.