Spanish sportswoman resurfaces after 500 days underground

A Spanish extreme sportswoman returned to the open air on Friday morning after more than 500 days in a natural cave, completely cut off from the world at 70 meters deep, describing the experience as “excellent” and “incomparable” ...despite an invasion of flies. "I haven't spoken to anyone for a year and a half, I've been alone with myself," Beatriz Flamini, 50, told a press conference in Motril, a small town in the south of Andalusia (southern region of Spain), near the coast.

She had come out about two hours earlier, with the help of speleologists, from a cave located some 10 km away, at the bottom of which she had been since November 21, 2021 – i.e. for 510 days – for a scientific experiment. designed to assess the physical and mental impact of total isolation and loss of time markers. Beatriz Flamini, who apologized several times for her difficulty in finding her words, explained that she only had books, artificial light and cameras to record her experience, but had no telephone or device to know the time or the day of the year.

“Challenges of this kind, there have been many, but none with all the characteristics of this one: alone and in total isolation, without contact with the outside, without (natural) light, without reference to time” , commented David Reyes, member of the Andalusian Federation of Speleology, who was in charge of the safety of Flamini. Spain's Tourism Minister, Héctor Gómez, hailed the athlete's performance in an interview with Spanish Public Television (TVE), describing it as "a manifestation of extreme resistance". According to the Spanish press, this would be the world record in this category for the longest time spent underground in total isolation.