Winter swimming

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Henri Kaarma at the 2016 Winter World Swimming Championships, photography by Konstantin Soldatov in Tyumen, Russia
Tiffany McQueen, winter swimming in Lake Memphremagog in Vermont
Yrjö-Koskinen Mariia, Chairperson of the International Winter Swimming Association with Anna-Carin Nordin, an Oceans Seven swimmer from Sweden at the 2013 Global Open Water Swimming Conference in Cork, Ireland
Winter swimmer in Siberia, Russia
Ice swimming in Murmansk, Russia. Photo by Nuala Moore of Ireland
Molly Conroy training at the Conroy Pond for her ice mile at the 2015 Ireland Ice Swimming Championships. Photo by Paul McCambridge / MAC Visual Media
Nuala Moore doing an ice swim in Russia inside the Arctic Circle at the Polar Olympics
Winter swimming in a pool carved out of a frozen body of water
Winter or Ice swimming by Ram Barkai in Antarctica
Zani Muller and Monika Hayes, winners of the 450m endurance swim at the 2014 International Winter Swimming Competition in Murmansk, Russia
Ice Swimming German Open poster
Christof Wandratsch featured at the Ice Swimming German Open
Locations of the Ice Sevens swims around the world, governed and ratified by the International Ice Swimming Association

noun - Winter swimming is the activity of swimming during the winter season, typically in outdoor locations (open water swimming) or in unheated pools or lidos. Many winter swimmers swim with standard swimwear rather than with wetsuits or other thermal protection. The activity may or may not involve freezing water, depending on the geographical location and the local temperature.

Winter Swimming Luminaries

Winter swimming is any form of swimming that would be extreme in terms of distance, water temperature or water conditions done in winter. It can be performed in a body of water with a frozen crust of ice, or under the hot tropical sun.

Winter swimming may be synonymous with Extreme swimming or Avantouinti or Ice swimming in colder countries. This requires either breaking the ice or entering where a spring keeps the water from freezing over. This may also be simulated by a pool of water at 0°C, the temperature at which water freezes. Ice swimmers typically dip their heads below the surface to ensure that they are completely wet, whether or not the water is over their heads. They usually do not swim beneath the ice, as it is easy to get disoriented when turning around and not be able to find one's way back to the hole. Some ice swimmers avoid this problem by swimming from one hole to another, or by swimming under the ice while tethered to the shore.

Northern Europe

In Finland, Northern Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, the winter swimming tradition has been connected with the sauna tradition.

Ice swimming on its own is especially popular in Finland. There is an Avantouinti (ice-hole swimming) and the Avantouinti Society.

United Kingdom

Famous locations include the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, London.

China

In Harbin, northern China, many ice swim in the Songhua River.

Russia

There are strong traditions for ice swimming and dousing with cold water in Russia from Murmansk to Tyumen. They are done for health benefits, as a ritual of the Orthodox Church for the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, and for sports.

There are ice swimming groups such as the Walrus Club in Murmansk where club members are called "walruses" (Russian: моржи) instead of "polar bear swimmers".

North America

The members of Canadian and American Polar Bear Clubs go outdoor bathing or swimming in the middle of winter. In some areas it is unusual or ceremonial enough to attract press coverage. Polar Bear Swims are conducted as fund-raisers for charity, notably the Special Olympics.

The oldest ice swimming club in the United States is the Coney Island Polar Bear Club of Coney Island, New York, who hold an annual polar plunge on New Year's Day as well as regular swims every Sunday from November to April.

The Memphremagog Winter Swimming Society was formed in 2015 for the purpose of hosting and promoting winter swimming in North America. It held the very first U.S. Winter Swimming Championships in Lake Memphremagog in February 2015 and will be hosting its Second Annual Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival in 2016. The Society and its members also actively promote cold water and winter swimming throughout North America, including Nage Nordic, a cold water swim in Levis, QC in the St. Lawrence River, Canada.

International Ice Swimming Association

The International Ice Swimming Association was founded by Ram Barkai of South Africa and conducts 600m and 1-mile swims in open bodies of water whose water temperatures are less than 5°C (41°F).

International Winter Swimming Association

The International Winter Swimming Association (IWSA) is the governing body that governs and sanctions the annual Winter Swimming Championships and the Winter Swimming World Cup in various locations around the world. Its chairperson is Yrjö-Koskinen Mariia of Finland and its co-organizer is Aleksandr Jakovlevs of Latvia.

World Winter Swimming Championships

The World Winter Swimming Championships are also held annually in Europe where Extreme swimming events attract hundreds of athletes from dozens of countries.

Synonyms

Epiphany swimming, Cold-water swimming, Ice hole swimming, Ice swimming, Avantouinti (Finnish), Extreme swimming, Polar Bear Swim

Ice Sevens Challenge

The Ice Sevens Challenge or the Ice Sevens is the ice swimming equivalent of the Oceans Seven. Conceived by Ger Kennedy and Steven Munatones, to achieve the Ice Sevens, a swimmer must complete a 1 km swim under standard ice swimming rules (i.e., no wetsuit and no neoprene hat) in the following locations:

1 Any location in Europe below 5ºC (41ºF)
2 Any location in Russia below 5ºC (41ºF)
3 Any location in China below 5ºC (41ºF)
4 Any location in the U.S.A. below 5ºC (41ºF)
5 Any location in South Africa below 5ºC (41ºF)
6 Any location in South America below 5ºC (41ºF)
7 Any Polar location in the Arctic Circle or Southern Ocean below 5ºC (41ºF)

Winter Swimming Championships

Extreme Swimming In Red Tarn

Tyumen Open Cup




Big Chill Swim


2016 Big Chill Swim in 6.4ºC (43.5ºF) choppy water in Windermere, England.

2017 Ice Swimming Aqua Sphere World Championships


2017 Ice Swimming Aqua Sphere World Championships sanctioned by the International Ice Swimming Association, including the ice kilometer race in Burghausen, Germany.

2017 Ice Swimming Aqua Sphere World Championships sanctioned by the International Ice Swimming Association, including the ice kilometer race in Burghausen, Germany.

External links

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