Melissa O’Reilly

Melissa O'Reilly after an ice swim

Melissa 'Mo' O'Reilly (right), winner of the Murmansk Mile in July 2013

Mo O'Reilly is an American marathon swimmer and ice swimmer living in Prague, Czech Republic.

Ice Swimming World Championship

She won her age group (30-34) in the inaugural 1000m Ice Swimming World Championship in Lake Semenovskoe in Murmansk, Russia held on March 20th in 0.8ºC waters.

Winter Swimming Career

O'Reilly was a member of the successful, unprecedented, 6-day Bering Strait Swim relay, a 53-mile (86 km) relay crossing from Cape Dezhnev in Chukotka, Russia, to Cape Prince of Wales in the state of Alaska, USA. She won the women's division in the Murmansk Mile (Murmanskaja mila) in July 2013 in Murmansk, Russia. She finished second in the 450m endurance swim at the 2014 Winter Swimming Championships in Finland and is a founding board member of the U.S. Winter Swimming Association.

Winter Swimming Championship

O'Reilly is a co-organizer of the first Winter Swimming Championship in Lake Memphremagog, Vermont in February 2015 together with Phil White of the Kingdom Games and Janet Kylander Manning, R. Cristian Vergara, Darren Miller, and Brad McVetta of the United States Winter Swimming Association and Mariia Yrjö-Koskinen and Aleksandr Jakovlevs of the International Winter Swimming Association. The Winter Swimming Championship in North America will be held in accordance with rules of the International Winter Swimming Association and co-sanctioned by the U.S. Winter Swimming Association and the International Winter Swimming Association.

USWSA National Championships

O'Reilly won the 2016 United States Winter Swimming Association National Championships in the 200m freestyle on 30 January in New York City in 1.2°C (34.3°F) water of the La Marina venue in the Hudson River.

Marathon Swimming Career

She participated in the 15.1-mile Cape Circumnavigation Challenge marathon swim around Cape May, New Jersey.

World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year

The Bering Strait Swim was selected as the 2013 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year in a global poll managed by the World Open Water Swimming Association.

Members in Bering Strait Swim

SWIMMERS
1. Vladimir Chegorin, Russia
2. Maria Chizhova, Novosibirsk, Russia
3. Elena Guseva, Russia
4. Ram Barkai, Cape Town, South Africa
5. Jack Bright, UK
6. Oksana Veklich, Blagoveshchensk, Russia
7. Aleksandr Jakovlevs, Jelgava, Latvia
8. Matías Ola, Buenos Aires /Tucuman Argentina
9. Henri Kaarma, Tallinn, Estonia
10. Toomas Haggi, Tallinn, Estonia
11. Nuala Moore, Ireland
12. Anne Marie Ward, Donegal, Ireland
13. Toks Viviers, Cape Town, South Africa
14. Melissa O’Reilly (‘Mo’), Lambertville, New Jersey, USA
15. Ryan Stramrood, Cape Town, South Africa
16. Cristian Vergara, Santiago, Chile
17. Craig Lenning, Colorado, USA
18. Rafał Ziobro, Krakow, Poland
19. Andrew Chin, Cape Town, South Africa
20. Jackie Cobell, Tunbridge Wells, UK
21. James Pittar, Australia
22. Paolo Chiarino, Italy
23. Mariia Yrjö-Koskinen, Finland
24. Ivan Papulshenko, Ukraine
25. Zdenek Tlamicha, Czech Republic
26. Zhou Hanming, China
27. Oleg Adamov, Russia
28. Andrei Agarkov, Russia
29. Alekseev Semen, Russia
30. Tatiana Alexandrova, Russia
31. Roman Belan, Russia (Swimmer & Starter)
32. Elena Semenova, Russia
33. Alexander Brylin, Russia
34. Afanasii Diackovskii, Russia
35. Vladimir Nefatov, Russia (Swimmer and Chief Starter)
36. Evgenii Dokuchaev, Russia
37. Oleg Docuckaev, Russia (Swimmer and Chief Organiser)
38. Roman Efimov, Russia
39. Dmitrii Filitovich, Russia
40. Olga Filitovich, Russia (Swimmer & Starter/helper)
41. Victor Godlevskiy, Russia (Swimmer, Starter/helper)
42. Olga Golubeva, Russia
43. Alexei Golubkin, Russia
44. Alexander Golubkin, Russia (Youngest Swimmer at 13 yrs old)
45. Alexsandr Iurkov, Russia (Starter, Swimmer, Navigator)
46. Oleg Ivanov, Russia
47. Pavel Kabakov, Russia Swimmer, starter, navigator
48. Eduard Khodakovskiy, Russia
49. Aleksandr Komarov, Russia
50. Aleksandr Kuliapin, Russia
51. Andrey Kuzmin, Russia
52. Irina Lamkina, Russia
53. Vladimir Litvinov, Russia
54. Andrey Mikhalev, Russia
55. Victor Moskvin, Russia
56. Nikolay Petshak, Russia
57. Sergey Popov, Russia
58. Vladimir Poshivailov, Russia
59. Grigorii Prokopchuk, Russia
60. Dmitrii Zalka, Russia
61. Natalia Seraya, Russia
62. Viacheslav Shaposhnikov, Russia
63. Olga Sokolova, Russia
64. Andrei Sychev, Russia
65. Alexei Tabakov, Russia
66. Nataliia Usachaeva, Russia

CREW
67. Nikolay Khitrik, Russia (Organiser)
68. Lurii Melnikov, Russia (Organiser)
69. Sergei Chernukhin, Russia (Organiser)
70. Irina Makarova, Russia (Interpreter, Starter, and helper)
71. Alexey Svistunov, Russia (President of Russian Book of Records)
72. Rafael Valdes Mendosa, Russian (Interpreter and Starter)
73. Evgeny Novazheev, Russia (kite surfer)
74. Denis Berezhnoy, Russia (kite surfer)
75. Sergey Semenov, Russia (kite surfer)
76. Mariia Netrebenko, Russia (mass media representative)
77. Viktor Muzhetckii, Russia (cameraman)
78. Vladislav Bochkovskii, Russia (mass media representative)
79. Vladislav Bykov, Russia (cameraman)
80. Dmitrii Timofeev, Russia (research team)
81. Victoria Brylin, Russia (recovery team)
82. Nataliya Fatyanova, Russia (Head of medical group)
83. Irina Zhidkova, Russia (doctor)
84. Aleksandr Gremitskikh, Russia (Chief Judge)
85. Krutikov Konstantin, Russia (mass media representative)
86. Gavriil Ugarov, Russia (research crew)
87. Denis Kabakov, Russia (support crew)
88. Kiriil Zaika, Russia (support crew)
89. Natalia Yael Szydlowski, Argentina (nutritionist)
90. Paolo Adolfo Testa, Argentina (coach)
91. Carlos Eduardo Reges, Argentina (doctor)
92. Anibal Ariel Calderon, Argentina (cameraman)
93. Guillermo Gallishaw, Argentina (cameraman)
94. Alasdair Ross McCulloch, South Africa (cameraman)

Cape Circumnavigation Challenge

O'Reilly will also participate in the 2013 C3 or the Cape Circumnavigation Challenge, a 15.1-mile (24.3 km) marathon swim around Cape May, New Jersey on 14 September 2013, founded by Jason Malick.

2013 Participants

• Suzanna Aguilar-Dann, age 45 from Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
  
• Lelané Rossouw-Bancroft, age 36 from Newark, Delaware
  
• David Barra, age 48 from High Falls, New York
  
• Lori Carena, age 59 from Brooklyn, New York
  
• James Clifford, age 61 from Poolesville, Maryland
  
• David Conners, age 45 from San Francisco, California
  
• Sydne Didler, age 42 from Hague, New York
  
• Mike Gemelli, age 43 from Rutherford, New York
  
• Leonard Jansen, age 58 from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
  
• Jia Jung, age 32 from Brooklyn, New York
  
• Kenn Lowy, age 56 from Brooklyn, New York
  
• Sara Marley, age 45 from London, United Kingdom
  
• Anthony McCarley, age 54 from Berwyn, California
  
• Greg O'Connor, age 44 from Natick, Massachusetts
  
• Melissa O'Reilly, age 33 from Lambertville, New Jersey
  
• Kimberly Plewa, age 30 from Rahway, New Jersey
  
• Franco Prezioso, age 47 from Bel Air, Maryland
  
• Claudia Rose, age 49 from San Diego, California
  
• Charlotte Samuels, age 15 from Ridgewood, New Jersey
  
• Karen Schmidt, age 46 from Solano Beach, California
  
• Katie Scott, age 22 from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
  
• Mike Tyson, age 46 from Alexandria, Virginia
  
• Grace van der Byl, age 35 from Solano Beach, California
  

External links

• The Ice Swimmer - Melissa O'Reilly with Kyle Thiermann
• The Who's Who Of Extremists Gather At Top Of World
• International Relay Swim Across The Bering Strait Official Website
• Bering Strait Swim
• Bering Strait Swim - Ice Bering
• Do Ice Swimmers Have Bigger Brains?
• What Open Water Swim Could Be More Dangerous?
• Bering Strait Swim Succeeds
• The Deadliest Swim, Russia to USA Across the Bering Strait
• Melissa O'Reilly on the Bering Strait Swim
• Murmansk Mile Across Kola Bay Is Totally Cool
• Alexander Golubkin, Teenager To The Extreme
• Bering Strait Swim Is 2013 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year
• WOWSA Announces Its 2013 Awards
• Freezing Freestyle, Magda Okurkova-style
• United States Winter Swimming Association
• Kingdom Games
• Cold, Icy And Happy At The Winter Swimming Championship
• White Winter Wonderland In America
• International Winter Swimming Association Facebook page
• The Why's Of Swimming In Really Cold Water
• SOS, Rescues And Saves In Ice Swimming Competitions
• Ice In His Vein - Albert Sobirov
• 2015 Ice Swimming World Championship Results
• Elina Making Taking Safety To Her Limits
• Fast Frentic Freezing Freestyle
• Intense Competition Among World's Best Ice Swimmers
• The Power Of One, Henri Karma
• Ice In His Vein - Albert Sobirov
• Team Matters In Ice Swimming
• Checking Up And Checking In For An Ice Swim
• World Open Water Swimming Association
• Open Water Swimming
• Terrific Times In Tyumen