A competitive free diver since 1984, Pelizzari has established more than 15 world records -- including two in a single week in 1996 -- in a dangerous and boundless sport which requires divers attain unreal depths with no oxygen but for that in their oversized lungs.
He set his first world record in "Apnea" (defined as "temporary suspension of respiration") in 1988 and has virtually owned the sport ever since.
Umberto spent 2001 leading Italy to victory at the Free-diving Word Championship by Team in Ibiza (beating 28 other countries), and also establishing in November a free-diving world record in the Variable Ballast category, at -131 metres. Basking in this glory, Pelizzari announced shortly afterward that he was retiring from individual competition.
