Where Is Alessia Zecchini From Netflix’s ‘The Deepest Breath’ Now?

Every time I watched gold-medal-winning and world-record-setting Italian diver Alessia Zecchini swim deep under the surface of the ocean with only the air in her lungs in Netflix’s The Deepest Breath, I couldn’t help but think: “Stop doing that!”

And yet, she did not stop. The new Netflix documentary, which began streaming today, depicts Zecchini doing the exact opposite of stopping, as she strove to achieve deeper and deeper free dives, in the name of collecting world records. Zecchini, like so many competitors in extreme sports, was driven to push herself despite the many dangers.

The sport of freediving—aka diving deep under water without an oxygen tank, like scuba divers— which is not in the Olympics, requires athletes to be accompanied by “safety divers,” who will meet the athletes around 20 to 40 meters underwater on their way back up, in case the athlete “blacks out.” This literally means the athletes’ brains shut down. They are hauled to the surface, where their eyes roll and their tongues lull. Don’t worry, they have a few minutes before the brain damage sets in!

Director Laura McGenn provides the audience with hints that Zecchini can be reckless in her drive to set world records for the deepest free drive. That behavior, and the inherently dangerous nature of the sport, finally came to a head in Zecchini’s life in July 2017, when her boyfriend and safety diver Stephen Keenan died rescuing Zecchini from a dive gone wrong, in the Blue Hole, a diving spot in the Red Sea off the coast of Dahab, Egypt.

What happened to Stephen Keenan from The Deepest Breath?

Keenan, an Irish freediving instructor and co-founder of the freediving school and center, Dahab Freedivers in Egypt, was a beloved member of the diving community. He had already risked his life many times, before Zecchini, in the name of saving other divers. In the case of Zecchini, he left the safety of the rope that would guide him to the resurface when he saw her swimming in the wrong direction. The last photo of him alive shows him pushing Zecchini to the surface ahead of himself. Both divers were “blackout” when they resurfaced, but while Zecchini had been positioned on her back, by Keenan, Keenan himself was face down. He died while saving Zecchini’s life.

Where is Alessia Zecchini from The Deepest Breath now?

Zecchini, now 31, continues to work as a professional free diver and competes in multiple international competitions every year. According to her website, most recently, she took home the gold medal at the Oceanquest Philippines competition on Camotes Island, for her dive of -123 meters deep, with a constant weigh with monofin. She continues to set world records.

The documentary features a talking head interview with Zecchini at the very end of the film, where she reflects on the horrible dive that led to Keenan’s death. “Maybe I could have done more,” Zecchini says. “If I’d been more conscious, I don’t know.” She later adds, “The worst thing is we couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t save him. He rescued me, but I couldn’t rescue him.”

In Zecchini’s most recent Instagram post, posted on July 18—one day before the the film’s release—the athlete wrote, “The only reason I agreed to be a part of [the documentary] is to let the world know what a wonderful and special person [Keenan] was, so that even those who don’t know what freediving is can appreciate his immense humanity.”

The film concludes with text that states Zecchini dedicates all of her dives to Keenan. However, there is no mention of Stephen Keenan on Zecchini’s website.

Last year, Zecchini posted a tribute to the late Keenan on her Instagram page for the former safety diver’s birthday.

“I would do anything to hug you again…,” Zecchini wrote. “Miss you so much…”