Deborah Andollo

Deborah Andollo (born in Havana in 1967) is a Cuban free-diving athlete who holds several world records in different modalities. Her nicknames "Neptune's Girlfriend, Queen of the Caribbean or Mermaid of the Deep," associate her with the sea and her passion for the environment, as well as a sustainable relationship between man and nature. She is currently married and is mother of a son named Ernesto. She is also engaged in an audiovisual project, teaches diving, and is involved in the ecological movement and environmental education.^{[citation needed]}

She earned a degree in Physical Education at Havana University and started out her athletic career in figure swimming in 1979. In 1992 she switched to breath-held diving and came to the attention of trainer Omar Oramas who could see that the petite Cubana, only 5 foot 4 and 57 kilos but with an impressive 6 liter lung capacity could rise to great depths.

Her very first Constant Ballast dive took her only to a mere 60 meters, but with a duration of 2 minutes, 16 seconds. In 1993, she hit the 80 meter mark in a variable-ballast direct-immersion dive lasting 2 minutes and 50 seconds.A year later, on July 5, 1994, she spent 2 minutes, 24 seconds to get down 61 meters with constant ballast, a women's world record. Then, on May 26, 1995, at Cayo Largo, she did something really unusual, free-diving to a 60 meters without mask or flippers, in two minutes and 52 seconds. (Compare this to Tanya Streeter's current 67 meter world record—set with fins.)

There remained to break the mythical 107 meter Variable Ballast no limits record, set by Angela Bandini back in November 1989. On May 16, 1996 at a spot called Pasaje Escondido, just off Punta Frances, the Cubana mounted her 31 kg ballast sled for her world shot. Her descent was linear to a depth of 60 meters, where she slowed to compensate. She reached her base platform in 1 minute and 15 seconds. At 2 minutes, and 15 seconds she was back topside with the new women's world Variable No Limits breath-held record of 110 meters, or approximately 357 feet (109 m).

Many of these records have since been eclipsed. Both Tanya Streeter and Audrey Mestre broke the 110 meter mark in the spring of 1998, leaving it at 115. Streeter nudged her out in the Constant Weight records with her 67 meter plunge in 1998. No other woman has gone deeper than 58 meters, and everything in between is just a record of Andollo breaking her own marks in the mid-nineties. Tanya Streeter also broke Andollo's record in Constant Ballast in July 2003. ^[1]

Records

These are the highest records set by Andollo, and do not necessarily still stand.

Depth	Modality	Date	Place
110 m	No Limits	May 1996	Isla de la Juv., Cuba (Cmas/Aida)
65 m	constant ballast	Dec 1997	Isla de la Juv., Cuba (Cmas)
95 m	variable ballast	Jul 2000	Parghelia, Italia (Aida)

^[2]

References

1. ^ "Deborah Andollo". Snorklebum. http://snorklebum.com/artando.htm. 
2. ^ "World records". Apnea Mania. http://www.apneamania.com/code/worldrec_main.asp?typeID=howr. 

External links

• http://www.littleblueocean.com/freediving/content/fame.php
• DeeperBlue.com interview with Deborah Andollo

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Name	Andollo, Deborah
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Date of birth	1967
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death