It’s January 15, 2011 and the 25-year-old Michal Navratil has just claimed probably the most important victory in his career... After winning the qualification competition, in Australia, for the third Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, an inspired Michal Navratil went on to finish third overall in 2011, claiming no fewer than four podiums to emerge as the closest challenger to Gary Hunt and Artem Silchenko. A fan vote on redbullcliffdiving.com declared him the “most improved diver” of 2011.
When he stopped diving at the age of 15 – “the training, as well as the coaching, in the Czech Republic at that time was very poor and I didn’t feel like I could progress” – he did not stop watching TV. Whenever possible, he soaked up cliff diving competitions broadcast from all over the world. It was only four years later that the Prague-based diver was invited to dive from a 20m platform at the European championships in 2004. He took 12th place but wanted more.
For Michal Navratil, cliff diving means pushing his limits and excelling himself. After eight months of three diving shows per day, plus training, in China, where he worked together with Artem Silchenko, ‘Supratil’ – so named because of his Superman-style dives following competitions in 2009 – signed up to perform on one of the world’s biggest cruise ships. Working alongside celebrities, like singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, the Caribbean Sea has been his ‘home’ ever since September 2009. For the World Series competitions, he leaves a paradise that he calls his place of work behind, diving into the real world in order to make his mark on high diving.
