Three years ago travel writer Lydia Gard discovered freediving almost by accident. It’s an extreme and beautiful sport defined by one simple objective: to dive as deep as you can on one single breath. Record holders are now routinely diving to more than 120 metres, pushing the sport and their bodies to find out what’s humanly possible.
Through her coach, Lydia was drawn into a small but fanatical community of competition athletes all united in their drive for depth, and that’s where she stumbled on a darker side of the sport. Rumours swirled that a group of top divers were doping to get deeper, faster.
As the community began to turn on each other over the allegations, one prominent diver decided to take the law into his own hands. A secret sting operation was meant to put an end to the problem by bringing the alleged dopers out of the dark, and into the light. But the issue hasn't gone away. And now, a lot of people who’ve been too scared to speak up, are ready to talk.
Episode 1 will be available to listen on Tuesday 18th November.
Subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to binge listen to the entire series on Tuesday 18th November.
To find out more about The Observer:
Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content
Head to our website observer.co.uk
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Three years ago travel writer Lydia Gard discovered freediving almost by accident. It’s an extreme and beautiful sport defined by one simple objective: to dive as deep as you can on one single breath. Record holders are now routinely diving to more than 120 metres, pushing the sport and their bodies to find out what’s humanly possible.
Through her coach, Lydia was drawn into a small but fanatical community of competition athletes all united in their drive for depth, and that’s where she stumbled on a darker side of the sport. Rumours swirled that a group of top divers were doping to get deeper, faster.
As the community began to turn on each other over the allegations, one prominent diver decided to take the law into his own hands. A secret sting operation was meant to put an end to the problem by bringing the alleged dopers out of the dark, and into the light. But the issue hasn't gone away. And now, a lot of people who’ve been too scared to speak up, are ready to talk.
Episode 1 will be available to listen on Tuesday 18th November.
Subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to binge listen to the entire series on Tuesday 18th November.
To find out more about The Observer:
Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content
Head to our website observer.co.uk
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Elon Musk is one of the most powerful men in the world. He's a billionaire, the founder of SpaceX, Tesla and more. To his followers, he's a hero; to his critics, a far-right rabble rouser.
But for someone so public, there’s one part of his life that’s less well known.
Elon’s Spies investigates how this free-speech champion uses private investigators and surveillance to target everyone from whistleblowers at his companies, to online critics and people in his own life.
Episode 1 is available on Tuesday 8th October, with episodes releasing weekly. To get ad-free access and binge listen to all 3 episodes on Tuesday 8th October, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or by becoming a Tortoise member.
You can find out more about Tortoise:
Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists
Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content
Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more
If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com
Reporter: Alexi Mostrous
Producer: Gary Marshall
Original Music & Sound design: Tom Kinsella
Podcast artwork: Jon Hill
Executive producer: Ceri Thomas
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.