This was seen in 2018 during the 20th Finswimming World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. During the women's 400 metre immersion finswimming event, two Estonians were in the water: Anastassia-Anna Kunitsõna and Jelena Smirnova.
Before the race, swimmers secured their monofins (a single fin that attaches both of their feet together) and their cylinders of compressed atmospheric air. These cylinders are held right in front of each swimmer instead of breathing in above the surface of the water. Furthermore, as was explained by the commentator, “the use of oxygen-enriched mixtures is completely forbidden…”
At that point, they sat up on the starting blocks, clamping down on their breathing apparatuses, ready to jump in as soon as the starting beep sounded. The eight swimmers leaped forward cleanly into the water in unison, moving immediately into a fluid dolphin kick with slightly bent knees and uniformity of movement. It's essential that the push and pull of their fins is strong and even, as arms are not used in immersion finswimming.
Once their heads reached the turning T at the end of the first length, each swimmer went into a modified flip-turn: flipping head-first with the oxygen canister tucked into their core, whipping their legs over to meet the turning target on the pool wall, before rotating and pushing off into the next length of the pool.
The first lap of 50 metres (international finswimming competitions always use Olympic-sized pools) was completed in 20.22 seconds by Yi Ting Sun from China.
The swimmers were very quickly back to a full extension of the body and legs. All along, you could see precisely spaced exhale bubbles. After eight laps, Yi Ting Sun came out in first place with a time of two minutes and 59.24 seconds, while Kunitsõna and Smirnova tied in sixth with an identical overall time of three minutes and 8.13 seconds
Similar events include surface finswimming with a snorkel and bi-fins (the standard pair of two, with feet detached) in a front crawl stroke, or single laps completed with just one full breath and a monofin. These events are governed by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS, or World Underwater Federation).
Long before this sport existed, the International Swimming Hall of Fame notes that “Polynesian swimmers used hard palm [leaves] tied to their feet as swimming aids.” Benjamin Franklin is said to have invented the very first hand-powered fins. In 1876, R.H.W. Dunlop patented foot “plates” made out of wood. In the 1930s, Louis de Corlieu from France and Owen Churchill from the United States both created more flexible designs. De Corlieu then created a monofin in 1937, but it was only after the design was adjusted by several other divers and swimmers that the monofin gained notoriety for its speed in competitions in the early 1970s. The choice of material also changed from titanium and canvas to fibreglass, as developed in Russia. Competition rules still had to catch up to the technique of monofins, but eventually they became preferred over bi-fins.
Speaking about Estonia's connection to finswimming, the organizers of the 2020/2021 CMAS World Championships in Tomsk, Russia said, “Estonia has been strong in underwater orienteering since the end of 1950s in [the USSR] and worldwide. Until the collapse of the USSR it was the main underwater sport for the country.” With the current era in mind, they added, “[Estonian] sport divers almost never miss the world and European championships and get on the podium.”
In a 2012 interview with Finswimmer Magazine, Jelena Smirnova noted how Estonia had “six clubs with about 400 swimmers,” which includes Spordiklubi Fortuna in Tallinn and Maardu Finswimming Club, outside of Tallinn, where she coaches.
Smirnova herself was European champion in 2012 and 2014, bronze medallist in the World Championships of 2013, European silver medallist in 2016, and a European record holder. Her strongest performances are in longer-distance 400 or 800 metre immersion finswimming events.
Now, she pays it forward to her local community of young finswimmers. Smirnova is one of three coaches at Maardu Finswimming Club, along with Maria Zavjalova and Maksim Merkuri, who himself trained Smirnova. Across age groups, from three months old into the teenage years, youth are engaged with pool training, cross training, competitions across Europe, and extra social activities. The club was started in 1992, and since, finswimming has become the most popular sport in town. The swimmers regularly win medals between junior and adult championships. Indeed, the community of young finswimmers is looking very strong.
Finswimming competitions held regularly in Estonia include Tartu's Madwave Challenge, the Children's Finswimming Competition in Tallinn, and the Estonian Finswimming Championships.
The sport has room to grow in popularity, but its participants are dedicated in each town and city it approaches. Even with the relative simplicity of swimming, fins can diversify the ways in which athletes train by overcoming the resistance of water.
Moreover, swimming with fins and breathing equipment brings the focus onto high propulsion kicking technique, rather than upper body pull and breathing. It's as close as SCUBA diving or snorkelling will get to lane swimming. And you can do all of it like a fish, without the hindrance of coming up for air or even tilting your head to the side.
With finswimming having become more established than ever, we see how any sport can evolve in unexpected ways.
This article was written by Vincent Teetsov as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.
