21-07-2025
From flight to freefall: How TN based Archana Thiagarajan led India to glory
Until the 1960s, scientists believed that diving beyond 38 metres (around 125 feet), could kill a human. The pressure, they thought, would crush the lungs. But in 1952, an Italian diver Raimondo Bucher took a 39-metre-plunge and came back up, proving them wrong. Since then, freedivers have been going deeper. Some use ropes, some fins, some add weights, and one discipline has crossed the 200-metre mark. But the risk is real. Seawater is 840 times denser than air, and as you sink, the pressure builds quickly. The deeper you go, the heavier it gets.
And yet, freedivers return for tranquility and slow fall. 'What draws me to freediving, is the calmness and stillness. It's just you and your body,' says Tamil Nadu-based Archana Thiagarajan. 'I usually close my eyes. It's like being in space, weightless, free-falling, neutrally buoyant.' A former squadron leader in the Indian Air Force, Archana, never expected to find a space in this world. But earlier this year, she made history. At the 34th AIDA Freediving World Championship in Wakayama, Japan (held from 28 June to 2 July, 2025), Archana became the first Indian woman to represent the country. In her debut appearance, she set four new national records across all pool disciplines (DYNB: 137m; DYN: 125m; DNF: 94m; STA: 4:22 Sec), bringing her total to ten (all in pool disciplines). A sabbatical in Indonesia in April 2024 with her husband (also ex-IAF), had sparked a casual interest in freediving after initially considering scuba. They had both retired from the IAF on 5 January, 2024 and planned a year of travel. Now, that spark has taken her to the world stage.
