A native of North Berwick, Maine, Sumner made her endeavor to break the world record at a freediving event held at Lake Mysutjernet on March 2nd.

The swim required her to hold her breath for over a minute while swimming under 19 inches of ice in water temperatures of 35 degrees Fahrenheit, all with only a pair of fins and no wetsuit.

Freediving requires divers to hold their breath, and competitions are generally based around either how deep underwater divers can go or how long of a distance diver can cover without breathing. While it is relatively niche in the United States, the sport has a greater following in Europe and other nations around the world.

A lifelong swimmer and fan of the water, Sumner took up freediving in 2013 a few years after moving to Hawaii for work. She began freediving competitively in 2014 and competed for the U.S. at the World Championships in Italy that September.

At the individual world championships in Cyprus, she became the only American to ever win a gold medal with a no-fins 58 meter dive.

Sumner embarked on a series of competitions within the span of just a few months but soon began to hit a wall as routine diving started to take its toll on her body.

Sumner took a step back from competing professionally at the end of 2015, instead opting to focus on her career as a geographic information systems analyst and occasionally going freediving as a hobby and working as a coach when possible.

She began training again in 2023, this time with the goal of achieving the world record.

According to the swimswam