Enzo Maiorca

The recorded working language is Italian. The field of work recorded is Senate of the Republic. Positions recorded include member of the Senate of the Italian Republic. Distinctions recorded are Star to sports merit and gold medal for athletic prowess.

• Nationality — Italian • Sport — Freediving • Born — 21 June 1931 • Birthplace — Syracuse, Kingdom of Italy • Died — 13 November 2016 • Place of death — Syracuse, Italy

Maiorca was born in Syracuse, Sicily, where he also died in 2016. Maiorca was a vegetarian. In 1977, Maiorca was initiated into Scottish Rite Freemasonry at the "Archimede di Siracusa" Lodge in Italy. With the agreement of the Grand Orient of Italy lodge, this element of his biography was publicly revealed in 2017. Maiorca was fundemental is establishing the Plemmirio Marine Sanctuary, a 2500 hectare reserve southwest of Siracusa.

Maiorca learned to swim at age 4 and soon began to dive, although expressing a great fear of the sea. In 1956 a friend showed him an article about a new depth record of 41 meters set by spearfishing champions Ennio Falco and Alberto Novelli. Maiorca was led by the article to begin competing in order to achieve the title of the "man who reaches the deepest." He achieved this in 1960, when he reached 45 metres to beat Brazilian Américo Santarelli. That same year, however, Santarelli reclaimed the title by reaching 46 metres, which Maiorca soon surpassed at 49 metres. In 1967 Maiorca ceased spearfishing, while still competing in freediving. He explained in an interview why he abandoned spearfishing: • "It all happened suddenly. I was diving in the shallows not far from the cape that reaches out to the open sea south of the bay of Syracuse. That morning I happened to spear a grouper. A strong and combative grouper. On the bottom a real titanic struggle broke out, between me who wanted to take its life and the grouper who tried to save itself. The grouper was caught in a cavity between two rocks; trying to understand its position, I ran my right hand down the fish's belly. Its heart was pounding in terror, mad with fear. And with that pulsing of blood I realized that I was killing a living being. Since then my speargun lies like a derelict, an archaeological item, in the dusty basement of my house. That was in 1967." On 22 September 1974, in the Bay of Ieranto (or 'Jeranto') at the western end of the Gulf of Salerno, Maiorca attempted to establish a new world record for freediving, aiming for 90 metres. The event was televised live, for the first time in the history of RAI (the Italian national broadcaster). Less than 20 metres into his dive, Maiorca bumped into Enzo Bottesini, an expert scuba instructor, and upon resurfacing he let out a string of strong expletives, many of which were clearly audible to the television audience. His outburst led to a television ban for many years, and led to his retirement from competition for more than a decade. In 1988, Maiorca returned to free diving and set his final record of 101 metres. Maiorca's main rivals were the Brazilian Amerigo Santarelli (who retired from the sport in 1963), Teteke Williams, Robert Croft, and Jacques Mayol.

From 1994 to 1996, Maiorca was elected to the Senate for the right-wing Alleanza Nazionale party. Maiorca also appeared on Lineablu, a RAI broadcast news series, from 2000 to 2002. The character Enzo Molinari, portrayed by Jean Reno, in the 1988 Luc Besson film The Big Blue is based on Maiorca.

The authorities additionally record the headings Enzo Majorca and Vincenzo Maiorca. His recorded language was Italian. One child is recorded: Rossana Maiorca.