Fair Play | Deep Water Ep2

Summary

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Deep Water | Tortoise Investigates

Episode 2: Fair Play

Date: November 18, 2025
Host: The Observer (Lydia Gard)
Summary by: [Your Name]

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Overview

In this episode of “Deep Water,” journalist and freediver Lydia Gard explores the growing controversy of doping in the world of competitive freediving, focusing on the rumored use of performance-enhancing drugs by top Croatian athletes. By weaving together personal stories, expert accounts, and community tensions, Gard unpacks the unique challenges freediving faces as an emerging sport—and the moral, ethical, and safety questions triggered as athletes push human limits ever deeper.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Allure and Drive of Freediving

• Lydia meets her coach, David Mellor (“Mela”), in Greece and discusses the addictive nature of freediving:
  • “Addicted... We all say, don’t chase the numbers, right? We all chase numbers. But it’s the way you chase the number.” (Mela, 03:39)
  • Mellor admits every new depth achieved raises the bar for the next: “I remember saying... 50 meters is deep enough. And the minute I did 50 meters, there had to be 55... I’m sure, you know, 105, it’ll be more.” (Mela, 03:50)

2. The Rise of the Croatian Controversy

• The atmosphere post-world record:

  • During a major competition, a new diver breaks a world record, but the celebration is muted. Mela recalls:
    • “I remember being on the boat... world record being broken and very few people clapping. And I thought it was strange...” (Mela, 05:22)
  • Rumors quickly begin to swirl that the diver, Petar Klover, and his coach, Vitamir Maretić, are doping (06:04).

• Public personas and changing norms:

  • Gard notes their Instagram feeds: “Poster boys for masculinity... clips of jumping into the pool on a noose... big following... a lot of young aspiring divers are watching. It was unsettling. I had a sense that something was about to change.” (06:30)

3. Suspicion & Signs: Alcohol, Anonymity, and Testing

• Anomalous behavior post-dive:

  • Gary McGrath, another high-profile diver, recalls:
    • “Some bottles of whisky brought out—really high-end whisky... 11 in the morning, neat whiskey... five minutes after you’ve come up.” (Gary, 10:14)
  • The diuretic effect of whisky could mask substances, a rumored tactic to evade doping controls (11:13).

• Athlete perspectives:

  • “For the first 10, 12 years, I never even thought once about how doping could be used to advance my free diving...” (Gary, 12:29)
    • But, he adds, if someone believes a drug helps, they’ll take it: “It’s people. It’s got nothing to do with the sport in itself.” (Gary, 12:29)

4. What Counts as Doping in Freediving?

• WADA’s generic, non-specific rules:

  • “You know, the Wada list is for all sports, it’s not specifically for free diving. And this is where I think it’s fallen behind." (Mela, 13:15)
  • Freediving requires calm and a slow metabolism; typical “stimulant” drugs from other sports would be a disadvantage (13:24).

• Focus on Benzodiazepines:

  • The alleged substance is benzodiazepines, giving a mental edge by reducing anxiety—but they are not currently on the WADA list for banned substances (14:12).
  • “If you’re taking a prescribed drug that is not being used for the purpose that it was made for, and you’re taking it to enhance your performance, whether it’s on the WADA list or not, in my mind is cheating.” (Mela, 15:07)

• Risks and unknowns:

  • Gard highlights dangerous side effects—compromised judgment, physical risk of blackout or lung damage (17:08).

5. The Sport’s Small Community, Silence, and Fear

• Closed ranks and the cost of speaking out:
  • Gard observes: “From the moment I started this investigation, I’ve been staggered by how many people are keen to talk... but I’ve been more alarmed by how many are scared to be named.” (21:46)
  • Mela: “Nobody wants to speak up.” (24:24)
  • The intertwining roles in competition (divers, judges, organizers) create conflicts of interest and prevent transparency (22:47–23:44).

6. The Community’s Response: Secret Groups and The Sting

• Donny Mac of the Freedive Cafe podcast describes a private group forming to address suspicions around Petar and Vitamir:

  • “I got told that there was, like, a group that was forming... they started discussing ways to kind of, like, find out if they were doping...” (Donny, 24:32–25:13)

• Lack of evidence, and the ‘new wave’ in the sport:

  • Donny on why allegations persisted:
    • “They may not have the whole Zen-like, yogi-like ethos going on, but they are athletes unlike we’ve really ever seen in freediving...” (25:59)
  • Also notes the inadequacy of current testing:
    • “Doping tests are limited to urine samples... they're known as IQ tests because you have to be stupid to fail them.” (Lydia, 27:15)
  • Donny adds: “If you know that your closest competitor is doping... then the culture of doping develops, you know, and then how do you get rid of it?” (Donny, 27:28)

7. A Divided Future for Freediving

• Morality, fairness, and the risk of normalization:

  • Gard: “Maybe using performance enhancing drugs, building a brand around themselves and promoting a version of the sport that you do not subscribe to... influences an incoming crowd of young divers. That will change the norms, the power balance. That will upset people.” (27:40)

• Teaser for next episode:

  • A sense that action is coming:
    • Donny: “And then it all kicked off.” (28:37)
    • Mela: “Will caught them. Whether it was fair or not. He caught them.” (28:49)
    • Donny: “They never took benzodiazepine, ever. And I was like, I saw it with my own eyes.” (28:56)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the drive for greater depth:

  • "I always thought 50 meters was enough ... And the minute I did 50 meters, there had to be 55 ... And I'm sure you know, 105, it'll be more."
    — Mela (03:50)

• On a suspicious world record performance:

  • "I remember being on the boat ... world record being broken and very few people clapping. And I thought it was strange ..."
    — Mela (05:22)

• On the effect of benzodiazepines:

  • "For me, if you're taking a prescribed drug ... to enhance your performance, whether it's on the WADA list or not, in my mind is cheating."
    — Mela (15:07)

• On community silence:

  • "Nobody wants to speak up."
    — Mela (24:24)

• On the amateur/professional divide:

  • "They may not have the whole Zen-like, yogi-like ethos going on, but they are athletes unlike we've really ever seen in freediving ..."
    — Donny Mac (25:59)

• On the inadequacy of current doping tests:

  • "They're known as IQ tests because you have to be stupid to fail them."
    — Lydia Gard (27:15)

• On the normalization and danger of doping culture:

  • "If you know that your closest competitor is doping ... then the culture of doping develops, you know, and then how do you get rid of it?"
    — Donny Mac (27:28)

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Important Timestamps

• The Addictive Nature of Freediving – 03:39
• Awkward Celebration & First Rumors – 05:22
• Spotlight on Croatian Athletes – 06:30
• Whisky as Possible Diuretic Cover-Up – 10:14
• Reflections on Doping and Ethics – 15:07
• Physiological Risks of Sedatives – 17:08
• Community Silence & Fear – 21:46
• Intertwined Roles and Lack of Oversight – 22:47–23:44
• Group Forms to Investigate Alleged Doping – 24:32–25:13
• Casual Dismissal of Doping Tests – 27:15
• Escalation to Secret Sting Operations – 28:37

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains a tense, investigative tone—with Lydia Gard weaving personal experiences and interviews into broader meditations on risk, community, and ethics. Conversation is candid and sometimes confessional, especially when athletes voice discomfort or uncertainty. The tone is both reflective and urgent as it probes the uneasy intersections between sporting ambition, integrity, and safety.

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Conclusion

This episode peels back the surface of the freediving world to reveal its vulnerabilities, from ambiguous rules to the impulse for glory—and the silence born of fear. The doping debate is not just about fairness but about the very survival of divers as the sport grows in visibility. As pressures mount and anonymous tips become coordinated actions, the community is at a crossroads—between purity of pursuit and the dark lures of performance.

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This summary omits ads, promotional interludes, and non-content sections. For further context, listen to the episode or follow the series at Observer.co.uk.

Transcript

[Casey]

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[Lydia Gard]

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[Mela]

Home is the sea now.

[Lydia Gard]

Yeah, David Mellor started competition free diving seven years ago when he became my coach. He recently adopted a nomadic lifestyle, teaching and training at dive spots around the world.

[Mela]

Wherever you go, you usually make new friends, so in the end, pretty much you could dive anywhere in the world and you know you're going to meet somebody.

[Lydia Gard]

Back in August he was in Mytakas, Greece training for a competition and that's where we arranged to meet in a quintessential Greek taverna only a few steps from the water's Edge, What makes it addictive, what keeps you coming back for more?

[Mela]

Yeah, I mean, addicted. We all say, don't chase the numbers, Right? We all chase numbers. But it's the way you chase the number.

[Lydia Gard]

What will be enough for you, do you think?

[Mela]

I don't know. I always thought 50 meters was enough. I. I remember saying that to myself, that 50 meters is deep enough. And the minute I did 50 meters, there had to be 55. And the minute I did a hundred, it has to be 105. And I'm sure you know, 105, it'll be more.

[Lydia Gard]

Mel is now a multiple world record holder. There's not a lot that goes on without him knowing. So it's no surprise that the first time I heard talk about potential doping, I was with him. The first time I travelled to see Mela was back in October 2022. We'd arranged to meet in Ka Turkey. The vertical blue doping scandal was still nine months away. I landed the day after a world championship competition had wrapped. The town was still milling with free divers at the harbour. We settled on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the main square. I remember the branches of huge olive trees were strung with fairy lights.

[Mela]

I remember watching the dive. I was sat on the boat watching.

[Lydia Gard]

Mela told me that a new world record had just been set by a relatively new diver. A 95 meter, no fins dive. That means no fins, no rope, nothing but a modified breaststroke to get you all the way down and up again. That's a serious depth. But something about it seemed different and.

[Mela]

What struck me and like I said, I've seen world records before and everyone cheering and everybody like, clapping. And I remember being on the boat around lots of different nations watching this dive and the world record being broken and very few people clapping. And I thought it was strange because the world record had been broken, you.

[Lydia Gard]

Know, and at the time, did you understand why they weren't enthusiastically.

[Mela]

No, not really, no.

[Casey]

No.

[Lydia Gard]

In the moment, it's unclear why there wasn't a celebration on the athlete's boat. But in the days after Mela hears a rumor that that diver is doping. And who was that dive?

[Gary McGrath]

The.

[Mela]

The diver was Petar.

[Lydia Gard]

So up until that point, you'd heard rumors?

[Mela]

Heard rumors, yeah.

[Lydia Gard]

Like specifically about anybody or.

[Mela]

Well, yeah, I mean, to the Croatians, I mean, I don't think that's a secret. Petar and Vitamir are very controversial, I think in freediving. I think they're the main reason for the split in the community. You love them or you don't.

[Lydia Gard]

Petar Klover and his coach, Witomir Maricic, are a new wave of freedivers. They're the two Croatian athletes who later appear at the center of the vertical blue doping scandal. When I heard the rumors, I looked these guys up on Instagram. I could see straight away that they practice freediving in a very different way. They're the poster boys for masculinity. Their feeds are full of max deadlifts, underwater stunts, highlining videos and muscular torso shots. There's a performative aspect to it, from the simulated underwater fights to clips of jumping into the pool on a noose and sinking hangman style, or performing pretend waterboarding while submerged in a hood. And they have a big following. You only have to read the comments to see that a lot of young aspiring divers are watching. It was unsettling. I had a sense that something was about to change. I'm Lydia Gard, and from Tortoise Investigates and the observer. This is deep water Episode 2 Fair play.

[Gary McGrath]

Petar came from nowhere and was doing some very big, big dives. Yeah, which were making people take notice, but some of these dives were a bit too good. There were some performances that were making people think, wow, this person either is 1 in 10 million or something else is happening, you know?

[Lydia Gard]

In 2018, Vitamir Mareti was already a seasoned athlete. He was 33, muscular and powerful. He'd been a sports climber. Then his girlfriend at the time introduced him to free diving and he was training at his local swimming pool in Rijeka, a city on the Croatian coast. It was at that pool that Witemir met Petar Klover, who worked there as a lifeguard. Petar was a swimmer already conditioned. Together they began to train, with Witimir as coach and Petar as diver. PETA did his first depth competition in 2019. A no fins dive to 60 metres deep. No fins is considered the hardest and most challenging discipline. It's for purists. No rope, no fins, no help. To get you back to the surface, you need strength, technique and courage. Two months later, he entered his first world championships and performed a 70 meter dive. Back then, Witmir's Instagram feed had 20,000 followers and was largely populated by self portraits, travel pictures and adventure pursuits like highlining in the mountains, making bubble rings in the ocean and surfing. He comes across then as friendly, brave and humble. And in January 2019, he posted on Instagram announcing that he's joined a program for random out of competition doping control by Wadda. In the caption, he says, I know that there has been debate and speculation about me using banned substances, even though in my entire athletic and coaching career I'm strongly against it. But Mela wasn't the only diver to observe strange things when the Croatians got in the water. Gary McGrath had seen things too.

[Gary McGrath]

Some of the training dives I did in Turkey, we go out on a very big boat. There'll be 25, 30 free divers on there with a couple of dive lines hanging off the back.

[Lydia Gard]

It's 20, 22 and Gary is training for the World Championships in Ka. He's telling me about one of the training dives in the run up to that competition and something that Vitamir and Petard did on that dive, which really struck him.

[Gary McGrath]

After some of these dives, there was some bottles of whiskey brought out, some really high end whiskey, and I thought, okay, maybe it's someone's birthday, I don't know, 11 in the morning, neat whiskey. I like a whisky every now and again, but two or three neat whiskies after being, you know, the dehydration you feel after a dive.

[Lydia Gard]

Gary is talking about immersion diuresis. It's a physiological dive response. In short, when we're deep underwater, our circulating blood volume increases, the body reads that as fluid overload and we urinate a lot and, and the idea of drinking anything except maybe a litre of electrolyte straight after a dive is just alien to most free divers. Maybe coffee, but whisky when you're still on the boat, look, there's no law against it. And whisky in particular has a kind of work hard, play hard, real men only sort of reputation. But there's another reason someone might drink.

[Gary McGrath]

I didn't really put two and two together. I thought, okay, they're drinking, this is weird, but go with it. And then a few conversations I had with people were like, well, you know, it has a diuretic effect, the alcohol, it helps purge your system and it can be used to mask certain substances.

[Lydia Gard]

That would help if you're going to be tested. And if you're a professional athlete chasing a world record, you could be tested at any time.

[Gary McGrath]

You know, there's one thing having a glass of wine at dinner in the evening, and it's completely different thing. Smashing neat whiskies while you're still in your wetsuit, you know, five minutes after you've come up.

[Lydia Gard]

Petar made two astonishing performances in Ka, earning himself two gold medals and two world records. One of them was a 135 meter dive, the deepest in competition ever. That's the dive that Mela told me about.

[Mela]

I knew who Petar was and like I said, when we watched the dive, and literally there was only his girlfriend at the time, cheering, you know, and a load of other athletes around, not cheering. Rumours were happening about athletes doping, but I never really. I didn't even know what doping meant.

[Gary McGrath]

I could probably say for the first 10, 12 years, I never even thought once about how doping could be used to advance my free diving. It was just hard work. That was how I was going to advance my free diving. But I think for certain people, if they see I can take Substance A and get better, then they'll do it. It's just. It's people. It's got nothing to do with the sport in itself. It's people.

[Mela]

So then you get to the question of what is doping?

[Lydia Gard]

The World Anti Doping Agency, or wada, sets the rules on doping and they have a prohibited list. It's a long document outlining nine groups of substances that athletes are banned from using either in or out of competition.

[Mela]

You know, the Waded list is for all sports, it's not specifically for free diving. And this is where I think it's fallen behind.

[Lydia Gard]

If you're doping, you're knowingly taking something on that prohibited list in order to achieve a benefit or advantage. But that list is generic. Physiologically, freediving is unique. There's a running joke in the community that it's 90% mental and 10% in the mind. To succeed at depth, you basically have to be completely calm and focused with little or no anxiety. You need a low heart rate, a slow metabolism, and you have to be relaxed. So any stimulants would be a disadvantage. In fact, many of the drugs that would enhance performance in other sports simply wouldn't work for us.

[Gary McGrath]

There was rumors starting to circulate and people were starting to talk about, okay, if people are doping, what are they doping with?

[Lydia Gard]

I'd been told the Croatians were using sedatives, specifically benzodiazepines. They're not on the WADA list. Benzos are a family of prescription drugs usually prescribed for anxiety, like Valium or Xanax. They're designed to increase the effects of something called gaba, a chemical that reduces activity in the areas of the brain responsible for emotion and essential functions like breathing.

[Gary McGrath]

I started to hear and started to do a bit of my own reading around about what things could help on a free dive, you know, and for me, it was a bit scary because it was completely unknown and I wouldn't want to be that first generation guinea pig no way. No way. I wouldn't do that sort of experimenting on myself. It's not worth it. This is not a huge sport where if I win this world championship, I can retire on that money. You know.

[Mela]

For me, if you're taking a prescribed drug that is not being used for the purpose that it was made for, and you're taking it to enhance your performance, whether it's on the WADA list or not, in my mind is cheating.

[Lydia Gard]

But they're not banned, so they're not policed by the governing bodies and testing agencies. So using them to dive is just a matter of individual risk assessment, ethical and moral code.

[Mela]

And what I don't want is for everybody to think that they have to take something to be able to compete. Do we have to take benzos or whatever the next drug is going to be if they ban benzos? Is. Is that what we've got to do?

[Lydia Gard]

Back in 2008, there was a Turkish study published by WADA which investigated whether benzodiazepines have a positive effect on the shooting performance in elite archers. It found that they do exert calming effects and reduce anxiety at relatively low doses, but concluded that benzo use does not improve athletic performance in archery. Benzion. But there's no freediving specific medical research available, and so far, nobody can tell you, not the manufacturers of these drugs or the doctors who prescribe them, exactly how they could affect the body. At 130 meters deep, if you're clear.

[Mela]

And you don't take any drugs, right, you're going to feel the anxiety on the surface. You're going to feel what your body really feels like, okay? So your body's gonna find a way to mess your dive up. If you're not relaxed, if you can't equalize, if contractions come early because you have all your senses, they're not dumbed down by some drug. And if you're taking stuff, you're gonna lose those senses and maybe you're gonna find yourself going deeper because you don't care and end up with a squeeze or some injury or some blackout, you know, who knows? So you're just playing with something you don't really understand.

[Lydia Gard]

If you haven't heard of a squeeze in free diving, I urge you not to Google it. It's lung damage, a tear in the tissues, which happens when the lungs are rigid and the diver is tense or makes a sudden movement. If you do see one, you might see a diver coughing up bright red blood. As for blackouts, they're the brain's shut off mechanism. They prevent it from having to operate on critically low oxygen. Benzos decrease blood oxygen saturation, which increases the risk of blackout. When it's simple. Sedatives affect cognitive function, judgment and coordination. They will compromise a diver's ability to manage the dive and react to a problem. I mean, if you're prescribed benzos in the uk, you're warned that it's illegal to drive while taking it. It's not just about whether performance enhancing drugs are fair, it's about safety. Experimenting with benzos or other substances increases the danger when the margin for error is already so small.

[Gary McGrath]

I've made Freediving my life and I've sacrificed a lot to be a free diver. So I'm really invested in it and I care that people get to know the beauty of this sport and I care that it has a good image. You know, it's really important to me and I care that people are just safe. My ultimate goal, I just don't want anyone to die. And that's my biggest worry, that whenever these big world championships come up, that someone is going to get hurt and I don't want that to happen to.

[Lydia Gard]

Anyone and it only has to go badly wrong once. I spoke to an experienced safety diver about this last time I was in Dahab. I asked them what would happen if in a competition, a diver goes deeper than their body is adapted for and they have a blackout at 45, 50 metres deep because they're pushing past their limits. Or maybe they tear their lungs at 80 or 90 meters. And the reply I got was, it's the job of a safety diver to bring them to the surface, but the likelihood is you're recovering a body at that point. Foreign.

[Casey]

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[Lydia Gard]

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[Casey]

And if you're not happy, we'll refund.

[Lydia Gard]

You up to a million dollars, which I think says it all. Check it out for yourself at Fin AI. This is a small sport, but it's not a drop in the ocean. In 2025 there are an estimated 7 million active freedivers, a significant growth in the last few years. The main education bodies reported a 25% increase of new certifications last year alone. The competition world is smaller, but that's a lot of people coming in watching our record holders, medallists. It matters what they see. It matters what the perceived norms are and how the sport's portrayed. I came away from KA with all the stories crowding my mind, observations, anecdotes and also my own questions like why would you knock back spirits to clear your system of a drug that isn't actually banned? Unless there are other things that need to be masked. Back then everyone was happy to gossip, but only behind closed doors. Why it happened and how it happened and what the truth of the matter got lost in the middle of it. Absolutely. If you want to remain off record and not have your name involved, then, then, then that's no problem. I just. It works fine if I call you via Instagram, but through the computer. From the moment I started this investigation, I've been staggered by how many people are keen to talk to me, but I've been more alarmed by how many are scared to be named.

[Gary McGrath]

Once you get into sort of professional or semi professional free diving, whether you're instructing, whether you're judging, you know everybody, you know absolutely everybody, everybody's got some sort of connection.

[Lydia Gard]

I've already told you how small and integrated the community is and when I first started freediving that was a big part of the draw for me. I idealised it. But there's an uncomfortable side to it, too. There are two governing bodies in freediving, CMAs and ADA. If you're a competition diver, it's likely that you're also involved in some way with one or both of the organizations.

[Mela]

The crossover with judges, with safety divers, with organisers, probably doesn't happen in many other sports. You know, if a footballer was hanging out with a referee, questions would be asked.

[Lydia Gard]

Why do you think it's like that? Is it lack of funding or.

[Mela]

No, I think it's not professional. It's a sport sport that's growing from a grassroots level and it's almost like rules are being made up as you go along. As you come across a problem, you get another rule made and we don't know what all the problems are yet. This is part of what's wrong with competitive freediving, how it's so open to abuse.

[Lydia Gard]

It feels like no one wants to put their head above the parapet. Even the athletes whose podium moments have potentially been stolen. In fact, they're the most scared because their livelihood and their reputations are at stake.

[Mela]

Nobody wants to speak up.

[Donny Mac]

I got told that there was, like, a group that was forming of people who had decided that Vital Meer and Petar were doping and they were getting together to discuss it and find a way to do something about it.

[Lydia Gard]

Who was in that group?

[Donny Mac]

A lot of the top freedivers.

[Lydia Gard]

Donny Mac is the host of the Freedive Cafe podcast. Since it started back in 2017, he's recorded around 170 interviews with athletes and coaches, competitors and photographers. It's a nexus for the community, making connections and gathering intel. So it's no great surprise to me that when a private group was formed to address the problems, Donnie was in it.

[Donny Mac]

They started discussing ways to kind of, like, find out if they were doping or not. And then they started to make some claims about how it wouldn't be possible for Petar to make those kind of progressions or jumps in freediving, which I disagreed with, not verbally, but I was like, these guys, whether you like it or not, are at the cutting edge of freediving as a sport. You know, they may not have the whole Zen like, yogi, like ethos going on, but they are athletes, unlike we've really ever seen in Freedev, and really pushed back on them. And this is the conclusion that I eventually came to, was like, you guys do not have any evidence for these.

[Lydia Gard]

People doping and it's feasible they've got other ways.

[Donny Mac]

It's feasible, they're just better than you.

[Lydia Gard]

We use the term athlete in freediving, but being brutal, there are very few freedivers who are truly professional in terms of their approach to training or even their technique. For the most part, it's still pretty amateur. So when someone arrives in the freediving community from another sport, especially one with crossover skills, it's. It's really no surprise that their performances and progress are accelerated. That was the case for the Croatians. Both of them knew how to train hard, bringing a professional approach to strength and conditioning, and that set them apart. Maybe for the pioneers of freediving, it was hard to accept.

[Donny Mac]

I'm sorry, because the fact it took you 15 years or 20 years to get so deep, you were a pioneer in the sport. When you went to 120 meters, you didn't know if your brain was going to implode or not. You know, they're standing on your shoulders. And we have a much more thorough understanding of freediving physiology and stuff. So who's to say that this phenomenon of a swimmer couldn't come in and make such a big jump?

[Lydia Gard]

But there's another angle.

[Donny Mac]

But they also know things about, like doping and drugs and how to mess with doping tests.

[Lydia Gard]

There's relatively little money in freediving, so doping tests are limited to urine samples, not blood. And as one athlete told me, they're known as IQ tests because you have to be stupid to fail them.

[Donny Mac]

If you know that your closest competitor is doping, or your closest five or six competitors are doping, then the culture of doping develops, you know, and then how do you get rid of it?

[Lydia Gard]

Good question. Because it's true. Dopamine. There's little faith in the system designed to police it, and there's a significant and urgent threat to fair play. So let's assume you're one of the established players in this sport. You've dedicated your life to it. You've held a number of world records over the years. And then young disruptors come along with an audacious approach and you question their morals. But they are breaking those records. Maybe using performance enhancing drugs, building a brand around themselves and promoting a version of the sport that you do not subscribe to, a version that glorifies preventable accidents, normalises serious injury, influences an incoming crowd of young divers, well, that will change the norms, the power balance that will upset people. And for one person at least, the answer was to take the law into his own hands. So.

[Donny Mac]

And then it all kicked off.

[Lydia Gard]

Coming up on episode three of Deep Water.

[Gary McGrath]

Yeah, it was a little bit of.

[Lydia Gard]

A pressure cooker situation in that room with the creations.

[Mela]

I mean, like, Will caught them. Whether it was fair or not. He caught them. Yeah.

[Lydia Gard]

At one point they were allegating that.

[Donny Mac]

They never took benzodiazepine, ever. And I was like, I saw it with my own eyes.

[Lydia Gard]

Deep Water is reported by me, Lydia Gard. The producer is Garry Marshall. Music supervision and sound design by Carla Patela. Podcast artwork by Lola Williams. Fact checking by Amalia Saltland and Madeleine Parr. The executive producer is Basha Cummings. Foreign.

[Casey]

Hello, it's Gary here.

[Gary McGrath]

I'm the producer of Deep Water. Before I tell you a bit more about how you can listen to the rest of the series, we have a house notice you might have seen some changes to our feeds, and that's because we're now bringing our Tortoise Investigate series.

[Casey]

To you from our new home, the Observer.

[Gary McGrath]

It's the world's oldest Sunday newspaper where you can listen to and read incredible journalism every day, seven days a week. So if you're enjoying this podcast, you can listen to all six episodes today.

[Casey]

By subscribing to observer plus on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

[Gary McGrath]

By subscribing, you get ad free early.

[Casey]

Access to all our investigations and never miss an episode.

[Gary McGrath]

Thank you for listening.

[Lydia Gard]

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