4.6 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Vertical Blue, 2023, the moment the doping scandal erupts. The competition organiser, William Trubridge, recounts his plan to catch the dopers – and Lydia investigates the fallout of a very controversial drugs bust.
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Reporter - Lydia Gard
Producer - Gary Marshall.
Music supervision and sound design - Karla Patella
Sound design - Rowan Bishop
Podcast artwork - Lola Williams
Fact checking - Poppy Bullard, Katie Gunning, Amalie Sortland, Madeleine Parr & Jess Swinburne
Executive producer - Basia Cummings
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| 0:00.0 | The Observer. |
| 0:09.6 | In the end, it fell on my shoulders to make it happen. |
| 0:18.4 | It was a really tough decision, to be honest. |
| 0:24.6 | It's 2023, and Will Trubridge has been free diving his entire life, competing for more than 20 years. Now in his early 40s, he's part of the |
| 0:31.5 | establishment. And as one of the most titled free divers in the world, he has a strong voice in the |
| 0:37.4 | community. He's from New Zealand, he has a strong voice in the community. |
| 0:38.9 | He's from New Zealand, but he's been based in Long Island in the Bahamas for years. |
| 0:44.0 | It's the home of Vertical Blue, the world's most exclusive free diving competition, the one at |
| 0:49.3 | the centre of the doping scandal, and Will's the guy who runs it. He's hosting 39 athletes who've signed up to compete, including the Croatians. |
| 0:59.0 | The event will be live streamed to a crowd of up to 100,000 spectators, |
| 1:04.0 | some of the biggest brands in the business, like Garmin, are sponsors. |
| 1:09.0 | In the build-up to the opening ceremony, he's doing his usual preparation, |
| 1:13.7 | but this year he's planning something a little different that only a handful of people know about. |
| 1:20.5 | Remember that Facebook Messenger group that Donnie told us about, |
| 1:23.9 | where the athletes have been talking about acting on the doping rumours? |
| 1:33.3 | Well, Will's an instrumental member, and he's decided to put his head above the parapet. |
| 1:48.1 | We had realised that the existing strategies, the existing testing in free diving wasn't sufficient to prevent doping from happening. |
| 1:53.8 | Vertical Blue is a private competition, but it's being officiated by Ada, one of the two governing bodies. |
| 1:58.5 | Not yet a water signatory, they do follow the same anti-doping rules. |
| 2:05.0 | Ada's website says that while organisers have responsibilities regarding logistics, safety personnel and setup, they do not have the authority to change the core competition rules or create |
| 2:11.0 | their own, as this would compromise the integrity and official status of the competition. |
| 2:16.6 | Yet in January, Will updates his doping policy for Vertical Blue, |
... |
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