This Man Held His Breath for 29 Minutes to Shatter a World Record and Send a Powerful Message
On June 14, 2025, a man submerged himself in water and did the unthinkable: he paused a fundamental biological need for nearly half an hour. For an astonishing 29 minutes and 3 seconds, Croatian freediver Vitomir Maričić did not take a breath, setting a new Guinness World Record and fundamentally challenging our understanding of human limits.
To put this into perspective, the average person can hold their breath for 30 to 90 seconds before the body’s survival instincts trigger a desperate, panicky urge to breathe. Maričić’s performance is more than twenty times that. It’s a feat of endurance that pushes past the boundaries of what we thought was possible, representing a remarkable convergence of elite physical conditioning, precise scientific strategy, and profound mental discipline. This was a powerful demonstration of how far the human body and spirit can go when pushed to the absolute edge of existence, a place where willpower confronts biology head-on.
The Blueprint for a Superhuman Feat
The setting was as unconventional as the achievement itself: a temporary pool built inside the lobby of the Bristol Hotel in Opatija, Croatia. In front of 100 spectators and five official judges, Maričić transformed a personal quest into a public performance. This wasn’t for fame, but to draw global attention to a cause he holds dear—the urgent need for ocean conservation. The choice of venue was a deliberate act of storytelling, bringing the depths of the ocean into a public square.
The attempt began not with the dive, but with ten minutes of silent, focused preparation. Breathing 100% pure oxygen from a regulator, Maričić engaged in a process called denitrogenation, flushing his system of inert nitrogen and saturating his blood and tissues with life-sustaining oxygen. This technique, known as oxygen-assisted static apnea, is the key scientific factor that makes such an extreme duration possible, creating a massive internal reservoir that his body could draw upon.
After a final breath, he slipped beneath the surface, lying motionless on his back in a state of suspended animation. For the next 29 minutes, a dedicated support team watched over him, monitoring for any sign of distress as he entered a state of near-total relaxation. This stillness is a feat in itself, requiring immense discipline to silence every stray muscle twitch and quiet the mind’s chatter, as every thought and movement consumes precious oxygen. When he finally surfaced, there was no dramatic gasp for air, no sign of panic. Instead, he calmly stood up, removed his goggles, and was met with a wave of thunderous applause, having surpassed the previous record by an incredible 4 minutes and 26 seconds. His composure in that moment spoke volumes about his mastery over his own physiology.
More Than an Athlete: The Mind of Vitomir Maričić
To understand how a person can hold their breath for 29 minutes, one must look beyond the physical feat to the mind of the individual. Vitomir Maričić is not simply an endurance athlete; he is a “polymath athlete.” With a degree in kinesiology and a background in computer science and physics, he approaches his sport with a uniquely analytical mindset. He sees his own physiology as a complex system to be modeled, analyzed, and engineered for peak performance, blending scientific principles with intuitive physical awareness.
His journey into professional freediving began relatively late, around age 30, after an injury ended his circus training. Yet, his natural ability was undeniable from the start. Today, he is a world-class competitor even without the advantage of pure oxygen, holding a personal best of 10 minutes and 8 seconds in unaided static apnea. This is a crucial detail; it proves that his record-breaking achievement is built on a foundation of genuine, world-class conditioning earned through years of grueling training to tolerate extreme discomfort.
What truly sets him apart, however, is his motivation. In a world often driven by ego, Maričić has stated that his efforts are dedicated to raising awareness for ocean conservation. He uses his extraordinary platform to advocate for the planet’s fragile marine ecosystems, turning a personal achievement into a global call to action. His deep dive into the limits of his own body is inextricably linked to his deep connection to the world’s oceans.
The Real Battle Within
The ability to hold one’s breath for an extreme duration hinges on a set of powerful, innate survival reflexes collectively known as the Mammalian Dive Reflex (MDR). This is a series of physiological changes that occur automatically when the face is immersed in water. The heart rate slows dramatically (bradycardia), sometimes dropping to less than half its resting rate to conserve oxygen. Blood vessels in the extremities constrict (peripheral vasoconstriction), creating a “heart-lung-brain” circuit that shunts oxygen-rich blood to the most vital organs. The spleen also contracts, releasing a reserve of oxygen-carrying red blood cells into the bloodstream, acting as a biological scuba tank.
However, the real battle in a breath-hold isn’t the lack of oxygen, but the buildup of carbon dioxide (CO₂). As CO₂ levels rise, the blood becomes more acidic, triggering chemoreceptors that send urgent alarm signals to the brain. This results in an overwhelming urge to breathe and causes involuntary, often painful, contractions of the diaphragm. Elite freedivers train for years to increase their tolerance to high CO₂ levels and, critically, to mentally override these primal survival alarms, observing them without panicking.
In an oxygen-assisted dive like Maričić’s, the game changes. Breathing pure oxygen beforehand floods the body with nearly five times the normal amount of O₂, which significantly delays the immediate threat of hypoxia. The main battle then becomes a raw test of psychological fortitude—the ability to withstand the intense physical discomfort of rising CO₂ levels for an extended period, long past the point where an untrained person would have surrendered.
Redefining the Limits of What’s Possible
Vitomir Maričić’s 29-minute breath-hold is a landmark achievement, but it’s crucial to understand it within the context of the sport. His record was set in the “oxygen-assisted” category, officially sanctioned by Guinness World Records. This is distinct from “unaided” static apnea, which is considered the purest form of the discipline within the competitive freediving community because it relies solely on the athlete’s natural physiology.
The official unaided world record, sanctioned by the sports federation AIDA, stands at a remarkable 11 minutes and 35 seconds, set by Stéphane Mifsud in 2009. Both achievements are incredible in their own right, but they represent different challenges, much like a marathon and a sprint. Maričić’s record is a testament to human-system performance, where an athlete’s physical and mental conditioning is augmented by scientific strategy to explore the absolute outer limits of endurance.
His performance stands on the shoulders of other endurance pioneers who have pushed this specific record forward, creating a legacy of limit-breakers. This lineage includes magician David Blaine, who brought mainstream attention to the feat (17 minutes, 4 seconds in 2008), and fellow Croatians Goran Čolak and Budimir Šobat, whose previous records established a strong national tradition in the sport.
A Masterclass in Breaking Barriers
When you hear about a feat like this, it’s easy to just be amazed by the number. But this is about so much more than a record. It’s a mirror showing the potential locked away inside you. The walls you build in your own mind are often the only things stopping you. Maričić’s journey is proof that you can train yourself to find stillness even when your body is screaming in panic. He showed that your mind can be stronger than your most basic instincts to survive.
So what does this mean for you? It’s an invitation to look at your own life. What are the “I can’t” stories you tell yourself? What fears are sitting in the driver’s seat of your life? Watching him conquer his own body’s alarms is like watching someone face down their biggest fears. It shows that real strength isn’t about never feeling fear or struggle; it’s about finding your center when everything is chaotic. His 29 minutes of total silence is one of the loudest messages you’ll ever hear: You are more powerful than you think. With focus and a reason to keep going, you can shatter your own limits.
Featured Image Source: Vitomir Maričić @maverick2go on Instagram