Mykolaiv athlete Sadurska tells how she trains in war conditions

Multiple world freediving champion Kateryna Sadurska from Mykolaiv is featured in the summer issue of Ukrainian Vogue. In the interview, the athlete shared how she trained in her hometown during the war and why Kyiv, Kharkiv and her mother's house remain her points of strength.

When asked where she feels at home nowadays, Sadurska says that she doesn't have a place like that right now. Music creates a familiar atmosphere when travelling. But there are three places of strength: in Kyiv, Kharkiv and at her mother's house in Mykolaiv, where she always feels comfortable.

Kateryna recalled how she prepared for the competition in Mykolaiv in the extremely difficult conditions of the war. The first deep dive took place immediately after the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was blown up, in June 2023.

«I was constantly reading the news and was emotionally affected by this tragedy. During training at depth, I heard a strange sound, and images of war immediately began to appear in my head — all the accumulated stress reminded me of it,» says Kateryna Sadurska.

Over the past year and a half, the athlete has set seven world records in breath-holding diving.

The most notorious of them is a dive without fins to a depth of 84 metres, which is a quarter of the height of the Eiffel Tower. Kateryna set this record in December 2024, becoming the first woman in the world to conquer such a depth in this discipline. Earlier, in 2023, she won a competition in Honduras, diving 97 metres in the free diving category.

It was also recently reported that Sadurska became a silver medallist at the World Games.