NAZIM ERDEM had a hunch the size of Tiananmen Square.

He had to learn how to hold his breath for a really long time. He was unsure why he felt compelled to do this, but suspected it would be beneficial at some later stage of his life. Erdem got to the point where he could deprive himself of oxygen for three minutes. He felt relieved to have done so but could not work out why it was necessary.

At the age of 20, Erdem launched into an extravagant dive off a pier near Melbourne to impress a couple of girls. He cracked the top of his skull on the sand, breaking his neck and severing his spinal cord. The girls did not see it happen. He was laying face-first in the water, drowning, dying, unable to move a muscle. He started counting again, just like he had practised. One, two, three …

He reached 2½half minutes before he was rescued. Without his previously nonsensical desire to develop his lung capacity, mastered on countless occasions by clamping his mouth shut and gawking at the seconds ticking by on his watch, Erdem is certain that he would be dead rather than representing Australia in the crucial Paralympic wheelchair rugby match against New Zealand in Beijing tonight (8pm Sydney time). The winner is likely to advance to the medal rounds.

"Eight of us went swimming, it was all good," Erdem said. "I jumped off and tried to do a big dive. I thought I was being a bit of a daredevil. We were with a couple of girls and I probably wouldn't have done it if I wasn't trying to impress them. I dived in and was just lying there for at least two minutes. It had to be two and a half, just lying there in the water and watching the sand on the bottom. My mates thought I was kidding around. I used to muck around a fair bit, so they didn't worry about me. One of them ended up grabbing my foot, but I didn't know he was doing it. I couldn't feel it. I couldn't move or feel anything."

Erdem has a wheelchair rugby classification of 0.5. He's one of the least functional players on the court. The most functional, such as Australian superstar Ryley Batt, are rated 3.5. Each team has four players with the gradings adding up to eight points. The 38-year-old Erdem works at blocking and picking off opposition defenders, clearing a path for Batt to run amok.

"I only have about 10 per cent lung capacity these days," he said. "Both my lungs collapsed when I had the accident. But I had them when I needed them. But I do believe in fate, and destiny, and now I think I knew what my fate was going to be. I think I was getting ready to save my own life."