•  Team USA placed 15th out of 26 men’s teams and ninth out of 17 women’s teams in the 2012 AIDA Team Freediving World Championships that concluded last week in Nice, France. Croatia topped the men’s division with 840.6 points, followed by France (821.8) and Czech Republic (758.4). In women’s competition, Japan took the gold medal with 677.4, followed by France (609.1), and Serbia (536.7). Two U.S. athletes set American records: Ashley Chapman of Wilmington, N.C., swam 160 meters under water while holding her breath — the third-best women’s individual score. Ron Smith of Sahuarita, Ariz., completed 175 meters in the men’s division of the same event. The U.S. was captained by Fort Lauderdale’s Ted Harty.

•  The French team of Olivier Backes and Mathieu Kindame won top honors in sailing’s recent Global Tech Formula 18 World Championships in Long Beach, Calif. They topped a fleet of 118 two-handed catamarans from 16 countries. Miami’s Sarah Newberry, teamed with Maxime Hainneville, finished 41st.

•  A 14-foot, 8-inch great white shark weighing 2, 292 pounds made scientific history last week off Cape Cod, Mass., when it became the first Atlantic member of its species to be tagged with a satellite transmitter and accelerometer. The shark, named “Genie” after Mote Marine Lab founding director Eugenie Clark, was caught by the crew of explorer Chris Fischer’s Ocearch research vessel and worked up by scientists from Mote and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. They also fitted it with an acoustic tag that beeps when the animal passes by underwater listening stations. The accelerometer, which popped free several days after the shark’s release, records tail beats and body posture, indicating Genie swam off strongly and didn’t miss a beat after release. The satellite tag tracked her heading south of Nantucket.

Susan Cocking