Deborah Andollo: Bold and Confident

Deborah tosses a few coins into the depths of the ocean calling for the protection of Yemaya, the Afro-Cuban goddess of the sea. She asks for permission to enter her domain and to return victorious. She takes some mouthfuls of air and with the last and deepest one she starts her dive towards a new world record. That was the competition routine of this athlete who first started swimming at the age of four and synchronized swimming at 11. Maybe she was destined for the Big Blue since her birth at the Havana naval hospital, overlooking the waters of the Caribbean Sea.

She spent 12 years in synchronized swimming until the summer of 1991 at which time she started to practice this highly specialized form of diving, a sport that had fascinated her since she first became an athlete.

She started training at depth in February 1992 taking advantage of her 6 litre pulmonary capacity and, as early as May of that year, she registered her first world record. Since then there have been 15 apnea records with her favorites being her numerous free diving marks. Nowadays, Deborah is the President of the Cuban Federation of Underwater Activities (FCAS) and has been since its creation in February 2006 and is a member of the American Area for the World Underwater Federation (CMAS).

"There are many things we wish to do but we lack the support. Almost everything has been done thanks to the efforts of athletes and trainers. We have the knowledge and the qualified personnel but we are