Biography
John Volanthen is a British cave diver and IT consultant. Born in June 1971 in Brighton, he studied electronics at De Montfort University and works in Bristol. He began caving as a scout and has participated in numerous cave rescues and explorations, often with diving partner Richard Stanton.
Volanthen played a leading role in the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand, locating the trapped youth football team and assisting in their extraction. He appears as himself in the 2021 National Geographic documentary The Rescue, which chronicles the operation. He is portrayed by Colin Farrell in the 2022 feature film Thirteen Lives.
