The program, though, tries hard to make the divers seem like heroes -- too hard, really, never letting more than a minute or two go by without reminding us of the dangers they face from the bends, damaged equipment, underwater pockets of gas that explode when hit with the torch's flame and so on.
The City of Leeds diver recorded the second-highest international score of her career (313.95) but left her run too late to make the 12-diver cut-off for Sunday night's medal round.
Pregnant Aboriginal women were believed to make the best divers, as it was thought they had greater lung capacity.
And there will be some modern amenities, such as a GPS, or Global Positioning System, to make sure the diver can find his way to the ships.
Divers make the trip to aim their lenses at rare small stuff, like sea horses and frog fish; it's also one of the Caribbean's best spots to see dolphins and whales, especially from December through March.
This urge to be no one is what made her the diver of the title, even before circumstance pressed her further into anonymity: "With diving, your face was virtually unseen.
Teenage British diver Tom Daley will make the first dive at the aquatics centre in Stratford, east London, which will be unveiled on Wednesday.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has made the most of the divers' feat, personally greeting them upon their return and announcing last month that Dr. Sagalevitch and two other team members would be named Heroes of Russian Federation, the nation's highest honorary title.
(Although decades later, Vesper Lynd tweaked Daniel Craig's Bond for his Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean diver's watch in Casino Royale: "MI6 looks for maladjusted young men…with easy smiles and expensive watches").. Technology made the pilot's and the diver's watch, but it threatened to break them as well.
The Oxford Dangerous Sports Club, inspired by reports of the Pentecost Island divers, made the first Western bungee jumps, and bungee jumping was first offered commercially to the public in New Zealand in 1988.
