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Thalia Sklair
Thalia is a competitive freediving athlete born in South Africa, currently competing under the Israeli flag. She is 6 x Israeli National Record holder in the disciplines of Static and Dynamic Apnea (In Static apnea the athlete lies completely still on the surface of the water to compete for breath-hold duration, while dynamic apnea is breath-hold while moving through water for distance).
After completing school at King David Linksfield, Thalia graduated from WITS in 2013 with a BA Performing & Visual Arts, coming top of her class in her major in Physical Theatre. In 2015 she launched her career as South Africa's First Professional Mermaid® and since performed around the country both above & underwater.
She took an apnea course in 2019 in KZN and became addicted to training on breath hold. By 2022 she was coaching Durban's "Hurricane Squad" in all forms of underwater apnea. In 2023 she left South Africa to pursue a career at sea, and en-route took her first record in Eilat in a National Record Attempt, with a static apnea time of 05:49 - one minute longer than the previous record.
Following in the footsteps of her late grandfather Yossi Tsabari who too was an Israeli champion (in athletics), she then began training at a professional level and competed in her first season of competitions with the following results:
March 2024: First official AIDA South Africa National Championship - Gold Medal: 1st Overall
June 2024: Israeli National Championship - Gold Medal: 1st Overall. 1 x National Record: STA 06:09
June 2024: AIDA World Championships, Kaunas - 3 x National Records: STA 06:12. DYNB 150m. DYN 153m
February 2025: AIDA Phillipines Panglao Pool Championships - 1st Overall. 1 x National Record: DYN 175m
She is currently working around the world between Freedive Instructor and Yachting, and continues to train for upcoming competitions wherever she is, however she can. As a pioneering apnea athlete in both Israel and South Africa, she is committed to paving the way forward for this young sport through dedicated training and ongoing research, and setting more records in the future.
Follow Thalia here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MermaidThalia.co.za
Instagram: @mermaidthalia
Industry Involved In
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SchoolLinksfield
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Matric Year2004
“My days at King David formed the foundation of the discipline it takes to set goals and reach them, no matter what. I grew to understand the power of routine and regimen. More than anything, my teachers taught me through their actions that no-one is going to take responsibility for my success except me.
One teacher in particularly stands out in this regard - My matric Hebrew teacher Morah Sachs. When I came back to school after being hospitalized, while most teachers treated me with pity, Morah Sachs would have nothing of the sort and she called me out on slacking in class - even though my marks were high, I was relying on my previous Hebrew knowledge to get me through, and was putting in zero effort to improve on it. She told me pretty much the week I got back that if I don't start making an effort, she will kick me out and send me to the lower-level class and I will be bored for the rest of my high-school career. She was right! I got my act together, I am still to this day grateful for that”