Artem Silchenko is the only Russian world champion in rare beauty and very dangerous sport - cliff diving. In 2013, he beat the invincible Englishman Gary Hunt and Colombian Orlando Duke at the end of the season. The final stage of the competition was held in Thailand. Artem’s perfect jump from twenty-seven meters was recognized as the best at the 2013 cup stages, and in the 5th year of the competition, our athlete fulfilled his dream and won gold.
What is cliff diving? His story
There are two related types of competitions: cliff diving - jumping from natural rocks, cliffs, and high diving - jumping from artificially constructed towers. Official competitions started in 2009, when the company Red Bull took up their organization.
Despite the fact that such competitions began relatively recently, people have been engaged in risky jumps since ancient times. It is known that a couple of centuries ago, the natives in Hawaii proved their courage by jumping into the sea from great heights. Closer to us, in Europe, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, residents competed by jumping into the river from an arch bridge two tens of meters high. These competitions still exist in the city of Mostar, the 451st city championship has already been held, and they began in the middle of the 16th century.
Biography of Artyom Silchenko
The future champion was born in 1984, his childhood and youth passed in Voronezh. Artem Silchenko began diving since he was 4 years old, became the champion of Russia in diving, was a member of the national team, but he realized that he was no longer progressing in classical diving, and was carried away by high diving. Mom, a famous gymnast in the past, brought Artem to the pool. I wanted to protect my son from injuries on the gymnastic platform, but it turned out that over time, the son took up a much more risky sport. Since 2004, Artyom spent eight years in China, where he had the opportunity to train and perform at the stages of the high diving world cup. To earn money for training at the beginning of his career, the athlete performed in demonstration shows on extreme jumps, spent two years on a huge cruise ship, where he jumped from a ten- and seventeen-meter height into a 3-meter deep pool as a participant in the show program.
The first season of the 2009 cliff diving competition, Artem Silchenko finished with the third result. In the following years, Artem was an unchanging participant in the global elite of extreme sportsmen, he won prizes at the end of the season and won individual stages of the world cup. The biography of Artyom Silchenko is a classic version of the extremal biography of the seasons of Red Bull. As a rule, former winners and prize-winners of traditional jumping competitions come to cliff diving, self-taught people rarely appear.
Risks and entertainment of cliff diving
Before entering the water, the speed of an extreme jumper reaches 85-100 kilometers per hour. After 3-4 meters, the speed drops to zero, overloads affecting the athlete's body are beyond. Heights for male jumpers are offered at the level of 23-28 meters, women - 20-23 meters. At such speed of immersion, deviation from vertical entry into water threatens with serious injuries and even death of the extremal. Artem says that repeatedly his rivals and at the same time his comrades were taken to helicopters by helicopter, so cliff divers were injured in competitions and training.
The flight lasts 2-3 seconds, this is a moment filled with adrenaline, like a drug, keeps cliff divers in extreme sports. But the number of athletes in the world is small, about fifty, and the elite is generally not numerous, 15-20 people. Apparently, even at the initial stage, the majority of applicants for high-diving performances in their own skin feel all the risks of this sport.
Cliff Diving World Cup Stages in Russia
In 2015, Kazan hosted the world championship in water sports. The most important event in the water competition was the high diving competition. All the best cliff divers of the world gathered for the competition, the whole few elite wanted to jump from the 27-meter tower. Artem Silchenko in Kazan performed with dignity, took bronze. In the first place is the most titled and stable jumper in the world, Gary Hunt.
