The opera house stage was not at the centre of attention for once on Tuesday but rather all eyes were focussed on a public performance of the extremes off the grand building’s roof. Colombia’s Orlando Duque fulfilled a long dream he had to dive off the spectacular building into ice cold water. Duque, who lives in Hawaii, was the winner of the “Red Bull Cliff Diving World Tour” this year and had long sought permission for the record-breaking dive. A three-metre long ramp was set up leading off the roof so that Duque could get past the stairs below and into the water.

“It was about 28 metres from the jumping point to the water, and that’s pretty high even for me,” the ten times world champion said after completing the flawless dive into the water. Duque’s personal record is from a height of 34 metres – - @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> a dive that the former stuntman completed out of a helicopter.

The recent market entry of his partner Red Bull into Denmark made it possible for him to make his dream a reality – and relatively unexpectedly at that.

Diving from great highs is among the most demanding sports because the athletes hit the surface of the water at more than 100 kilometres per hour. It requires an enormous amount of body tension to complete the dive during the moment when the legs hit the water while the upper body is still accelerating.

Pictures free for editorial use only: Joerg Mitter, Daniil Kolodin for Global Newsroom.com