Natalya Avseenko


Natalya Anatoliyevna Avseenko is a Russian freediver, former free diving world champion in the team competition in 2006 and 2008, featured in a photographic series by Viktor Lyagushkin illustrating the Orda Cave, a gypsum crystal cave underneath the western Ural Mountains.

Biography

Natalya Avseenko is a world record holder and a world champion in freediving. She is the founder of her own freediving school "PlavitaWay”.
She has a PhD in Culturology from Moscow State University. She worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication until 2007 at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Moscow State University.
She has been freediving since April 2004; at first the trainings went under the guidance of Natalia Molchanova, and then independently. Diving was done with Lotta Erickson and Linda Paganelli. She is a world champion in freediving, world record holder.

Scientific research

Natalia, together with scientists, took part in an experiment to study the language, echolocation and behavior of beluga whales in the White Sea. The possibilities of human survival in water under extreme conditions were also studied. Natalya swam and dived in the icy water, naked, holding her breath. During the experiment, she set a record for being under ice in ice water having a temperature of - 2 °C - 10 minutes 40 seconds during the first hike. The documentary "On the edge" was filmed about this experiment by director Natalia Uglitskikh. Natalya was under water with an overhead environment for about 12 minutes, but with the possibility of one-time switching on in the breathing process. The entire project, titled Princess of Whales, was organized and documented by photographer Viktor Lyagushkin.

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