Hands up if you have never complained about the temperature of the water before entering the pool for training or warming up before a race. Well, icy water swimmers would laugh at your complaints.
There is, in fact, an international organisation – the IISA, International Ice Swimming Association, founded in 2009 – for promoting swimming in icy waters, officially classed as water below a temperature of 5°C. How does it do this? By organising competitions over various distances for swimmers wearing ordinary swimsuits: they must be standard swimsuits that do not reach below the knee and must not be wider than shoulder width or above the neck for women. You are allowed to wear a swimming cap, goggles and earplugs.
Photo Credit: (Bárbara Hernández H.) @barbarehlla_h
The South African swimmer, Ram Barkai, who founded the IISA, also set the rules – the idea is to create a unified international schedule of competitions and specific rules for safety purposes. Ice Mile swimming races are held in icy cold waters wearing the type of swimsuits described above. The Association’s website provides a list of all the “ice swimmers” who have successfully completed this event from 2009 to the present day.
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