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“You are doing fantastic. You are at eight minutes fifty,” Klaus Kasten reminds Heike, who is lying face down in the water. It is the 27th of June 2024, the third competition day at the 32nd AIDA Pool Championship in Kaunas, Lithuania. Today’s discipline is Static. Usually, Heike doesn’t like being told the time, but today is different. “Remember surface protocol. Noseclip. Goggles. Handsign”, Klaus warns. He knows Heike is only seconds away from coming up. Only seconds away from breaking the world record, which was set more than eleven years before by Natalia Molchanova. The magical barrier of nine minutes and two seconds is within reach. “You are already at nine minutes”……Just a few seconds more… “Nine oh five,” Klaus announces. The world record is hers… if nothing goes wrong.
At nine minutes seven seconds, Klaus tells Heike to come up. He knows it’s time, and she follows his advice. Heike comes up, takes a deep gulp of air, takes her nose clip off her goggles, faces the judges, and says: “I am okay.” But it’s not done yet. Patiently, barely repressing a smile, she waits.
After 15 long seconds, the judge finally holds up the white card. Absolute World Record! Heike claps her hands in front of her face. All the hard work paid off. “I still can’t believe it,” she says, smiling. “Ahead of the championship, I was pretty disappointed with my static performance. I simply couldn’t get past 8:45. I don’t know how I did it. I think there is a lot that our body and mind can do that we do not know yet. Especially when it comes to static.”
At 54 years old, Heike is one of the best freedivers in the world. But going pro wasn’t on her mind when she first started. The blonde woman with a charming smile has both feet firmly on the ground. Heike is a single mother of an adult son, working full-time as a teacher at a school for nursing staff and takes care of her father. In addition to her everyday duties, she loves to travel and works as a freediving instructor whenever she is not chasing records.
For Heike, Freediving was not love at first sight. She hadn’t engaged in the sport before her 40s. However, the German athlete learned to move and feel comfortable in the water at an early age. “My mom loved to swim. And she always brought my older sister and me along, so she taught me when I was still a toddler.” Heike was able to swim when she was just three years old. But she didn’t just learn to feel at home in the water– she also discovered her competitive nature. At just seven years old, she was platform diving and trained regularly swimming in the pool.
It wasn’t until she was around 20 years old that she began to explore the underwater world by scuba diving. Around the same time, Heike made her first – albeit brief – acquaintance with freediving. “I liked the idea of freediving. But when I held my breath underwater, I got a bad headache. It just wasn’t my thing.”
Stylish Quote
Something drew me towards freediving.
Another twenty years passed before Heike tried freediving again. As a scuba diver, she loved being below the surface. However, in 2015, she heard about a freediving workshop at Lake Murner near her home in Germany and decided to give freediving another try. “I don’t know what happened, but something drew me towards freediving, and suddenly I was hooked.” After that first workshop, Heike was infatuated, and it didn’t take her long to become an instructor. But it wasn’t until one of her students wanted to compete that she considered competing herself. “I accompanied my student to the competition to coach him and organized a monofin workshop for myself in advance. I loved it so much that I signed up for the competition.”
However, her first pool competition in Burgebach wasn’t a big success. She reached 125 meters with her monofin but got disqualified in Static. That didn’t stop her though. In just her third competition, she set a new German National record in 2017 with an impressive 06:13 in Static. The rest is history. “I did not want or plan to compete when I started freediving. I didn’t want the pressure and stress of competition in my life. I was a single mom and had enough going on. But when I joined that first competition, my son was a little older, so I went for it.”
Heike has never backed down from a challenge. She knew she was good, experience had taught her that she could manage anything if she set her mind to it. So, while working full time and taking care of her now-deceased mother with dementia, Heike still managed to become one of the top female freediving pool athletes in the world within just a few years. “Freediving is a way of life for me. For me, it combines such wonderful things as exercise, physical fitness, mental and physical challenges, nature, and a healthy lifestyle,” she says enthusiastically. “You also get to know yourself, both mentally and physically. I get to travel the world and meet like-minded ‘crazy people,’ she continues beaming and adds: “Training makes me – mostly – happy.”
Stylish Quote
Training makes me - mostly – happy.
Today, Heike holds National Records in Germany for all pool disciplines and an absolute World Record in Static. Her winning strategy? Determination and trust in herself. Even though Heike is an instructor and a freediving coach, she primarily trains herself. In her spare time, she continuously hones her skills –reading about nutrition, fine-tuning her workout routines, and exchanging ideas with other freedivers about the latest scientific advancements in the sports.
Heike is at a point in her life where she has learned to trust herself and her abilities. Her outlook on the future is one of confident anticipation, extending beyond her own aspirations to the broader community of fellow female freedivers. She asserts, "For women, this is our moment. We have only just begun."
Want to learn how to hold your breath longer? Check out the Molchanovs Education Program and the Static Challenges with Mr. 10-Minutes, Florian Dagoury here.
Want to discover more inspiring female freedivers or stay updated on the latest gear launches from the Molchanovs Shop? Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news.
THIS IS OUR MOMENT
Molchanovs athlete Heike Schwerdtner went from zero to World Champion in just a few years. She prophesizes a bright future for women in freediving.By: Bianca Klement
Heike Schwerdtner set the new world record with a 09:07 minute breathhold.
“You are doing fantastic. You are at eight minutes fifty,” Klaus Kasten reminds Heike, who is lying face down in the water. It is the 27th of June 2024, the third competition day at the 32nd AIDA Pool Championship in Kaunas, Lithuania. Today’s discipline is Static. Usually, Heike doesn’t like being told the time, but today is different. “Remember surface protocol. Noseclip. Goggles. Handsign”, Klaus warns. He knows Heike is only seconds away from coming up. Only seconds away from breaking the world record, which was set more than eleven years before by Natalia Molchanova. The magical barrier of nine minutes and two seconds is within reach. “You are already at nine minutes”……Just a few seconds more… “Nine oh five,” Klaus announces. The world record is hers… if nothing goes wrong.
Always a smile on her face: German freediver Heike Schwerdtner.
At nine minutes seven seconds, Klaus tells Heike to come up. He knows it’s time, and she follows his advice. Heike comes up, takes a deep gulp of air, takes her nose clip off her goggles, faces the judges, and says: “I am okay.” But it’s not done yet. Patiently, barely repressing a smile, she waits.
After 15 long seconds, the judge finally holds up the white card. Absolute World Record! Heike claps her hands in front of her face. All the hard work paid off. “I still can’t believe it,” she says, smiling. “Ahead of the championship, I was pretty disappointed with my static performance. I simply couldn’t get past 8:45. I don’t know how I did it. I think there is a lot that our body and mind can do that we do not know yet. Especially when it comes to static.”
At 54 years old, Heike is one of the best freedivers in the world. But going pro wasn’t on her mind when she first started. The blonde woman with a charming smile has both feet firmly on the ground. Heike is a single mother of an adult son, working full-time as a teacher at a school for nursing staff and takes care of her father. In addition to her everyday duties, she loves to travel and works as a freediving instructor whenever she is not chasing records.
Work on your breathhold from home. On the Molchanovs YouTube Channel, you will find a selection of Static and Dry Apnea exercises.
For Heike, Freediving was not love at first sight. She hadn’t engaged in the sport before her 40s. However, the German athlete learned to move and feel comfortable in the water at an early age. “My mom loved to swim. And she always brought my older sister and me along, so she taught me when I was still a toddler.” Heike was able to swim when she was just three years old. But she didn’t just learn to feel at home in the water– she also discovered her competitive nature. At just seven years old, she was platform diving and trained regularly swimming in the pool.
It wasn’t until she was around 20 years old that she began to explore the underwater world by scuba diving. Around the same time, Heike made her first – albeit brief – acquaintance with freediving. “I liked the idea of freediving. But when I held my breath underwater, I got a bad headache. It just wasn’t my thing.”
Another twenty years passed before Heike tried freediving again. As a scuba diver, she loved being below the surface. However, in 2015, she heard about a freediving workshop at Lake Murner near her home in Germany and decided to give freediving another try. “I don’t know what happened, but something drew me towards freediving, and suddenly I was hooked.” After that first workshop, Heike was infatuated, and it didn’t take her long to become an instructor. But it wasn’t until one of her students wanted to compete that she considered competing herself. “I accompanied my student to the competition to coach him and organized a monofin workshop for myself in advance. I loved it so much that I signed up for the competition.”
However, her first pool competition in Burgebach wasn’t a big success. She reached 125 meters with her monofin but got disqualified in Static. That didn’t stop her though. In just her third competition, she set a new German National record in 2017 with an impressive 06:13 in Static. The rest is history. “I did not want or plan to compete when I started freediving. I didn’t want the pressure and stress of competition in my life. I was a single mom and had enough going on. But when I joined that first competition, my son was a little older, so I went for it.”
Heike Schwerdtner loved being in the water since she was a little girl.
Heike has never backed down from a challenge. She knew she was good, experience had taught her that she could manage anything if she set her mind to it. So, while working full time and taking care of her now-deceased mother with dementia, Heike still managed to become one of the top female freediving pool athletes in the world within just a few years. “Freediving is a way of life for me. For me, it combines such wonderful things as exercise, physical fitness, mental and physical challenges, nature, and a healthy lifestyle,” she says enthusiastically. “You also get to know yourself, both mentally and physically. I get to travel the world and meet like-minded ‘crazy people,’ she continues beaming and adds: “Training makes me – mostly – happy.”
Heike is at a point in her life where she has learned to trust herself and her abilities. Her outlook on the future is one of confident anticipation, extending beyond her own aspirations to the broader community of fellow female freedivers. She asserts, "For women, this is our moment. We have only just begun."
Want to learn how to hold your breath longer? Check out the Molchanovs Education Program and the Static Challenges with Mr. 10-Minutes, Florian Dagoury here.
Want to discover more inspiring female freedivers or stay updated on the latest gear launches from the Molchanovs Shop? Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news.