<p>Three years ago travel writer Lydia Gard discovered freediving almost by accident. It’s an extreme and beautiful sport defined by one simple objective: to dive as deep as you can on one single breath. Record holders are now routinely diving to more than 120 metres, pushing the sport and their bodies to find out what’s humanly possible.</p><br><p>Through her coach, Lydia was drawn into a small but fanatical community of competition athletes all united in their drive for depth, and that’s where she stumbled on a darker side of the sport. Rumours swirled that a group of top divers were doping to get deeper, faster. </p><br><p>As the community began to turn on each other over the allegations, one prominent diver decided to take the law into his own hands. A secret sting operation was meant to put an end to the problem by bringing the alleged dopers out of the dark, and into the light. But the issue hasn't gone away. And now, a lot of people who’ve been too scared to speak up, are ready to talk. </p><br><p>Episode 1 will be available to listen on Tuesday 18th November.</p><p>Subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to binge listen to the entire series on Tuesday 18th November.</p><br><p>To find out more about The Observer:</p><br><p>Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content</p><p>Head to our website <a href="http://observer.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">observer.co.uk</a> </p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
| Title | Date published | ||
| Introducing ... Deep Water | 2025-11-11 | ||
| Myths and monsters | The Lab Detective Ep4 | 2025-08-05 | ||
| Science versus the law | The Lab Detective Ep3 | 2025-07-29 | ||
| The eureka moment | The Lab Detective Ep2 | 2025-07-22 | ||
| Three is murder | The Lab Detective Ep1 | 2025-07-22 | ||
| Introducing...The Lab Detective | 2025-07-15 | ||
| An update on the story | Lucky Boy | 2025-06-06 | ||
| Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4 | 2025-03-10 | ||
| The school | Lucky Boy Ep3 | 2025-03-04 | ||
| The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2 | 2025-02-25 | ||
| Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1 | 2025-02-25 | ||
| Introducing...Lucky Boy | 2025-02-25 | ||
| A star is born | Elon's Spies Ep4 | 2024-11-12 | ||
| Amber | Elon's Spies Ep3 | 2024-10-22 | ||
| Horrible human being | Elon's Spies Ep2 | 2024-10-15 | ||
| Pedo guy | Elon's Spies Ep1 | 2024-10-08 | ||
| Introducing...Elon's Spies | 2024-10-01 | ||
| The lawsuit | Master Ep 7 | 2024-09-14 | ||
| The phone calls | Master Ep 6 | 2024-09-12 | ||
| The NDAs | Master Ep 5 | 2024-09-12 |