The International Ice Swimming 6th World Championship in Molveno, Italy to be held between January 13th and 19th 2025. Lake Molveno is located in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 40 km northwest of Trento.
IISA founder Ram Barkai announced the World Championship race schedule, the new IISA committee chairpersons, clarified definitions of para ice swimming, announced the date and times of the next L2 Course, and the changes to the International Ice Swimming Hall of Fame.
IISA 6th World Championship
Nearly 700 swimmers from 44 countries – with 200 swimmers in the 1000m distance alone – have entered the World Championship. Italy, France, Poland, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States have the largest teams, but there are also ice swimmers from Kazakhstan, Japan, India, Hong Kong, Ecuador, and Zimbabwe. The Championship race schedule is below.
Tuesday, January 14th
- 100m backstroke – heats
- 500m freestyle – heats
- 100m backstroke – final heat
- 500m freestyle – fastest heat
Wednesday, January 15th
- 50m backstroke – heats
- 50m breaststroke – heats
- 250m freestyle – heats
- 50m breaststroke – final heat
- 50m backstroke – final heat
- 250m freestyle – fastest heat
- 4 x 50m mixed medley relay
Thursday, January 16th
- 100m freestyle – heats
- 50m butterfly – heats
- 1000m freestyle – females
- 100m freestyle – final heat
- 50m butterfly – final heat
- 4 x 50m mixed freestyle relay
Friday, January 17th
- 1000m freestyle – male
- 200m individual medley – heats
- 200m individual medley – fastest heat
- 1000m freestyle – fastest heats
Saturday, January 18th
- 100m butterfly – heats
- 100m breaststroke – heats
- 50m freestyle – heats
- 100m butterfly – finals
- 50m freestyle – finals
- 100m breaststroke – finals
- 4 x 50m VIP relay
- 4 x 250m country relay freestyle
- Overall awards
- IISA awards
- Ice Fame awards
Sunday, January 19th
- lake dip for all
IISA Committee Chairpersons
- Alain Simac, Age Group Committee chairperson
- Marcin Szarpak, Athletes Committee chairperson
- Enzo Favoino, Education Committee chairperson
- Ram Barkai, Ice Mile Committee chairperson
- Krzysztof Kubiak, Integrity Committee vice chairperson
- Jonty Warneken, Para Committee chairperson [shown below]
- Henri Kaarma, Swimming Committee chairperson
- Ram Barkai, Safety Committee chairperson
Para Ice Swimming Category
The IISA recently established the Para Ice Swimming category rules and classifications.
Barkai explains, “We no longer allow new members to select the Para category. Instead, there will be a form on the IISA website under Membership by October 1st which explains the classification process, approval, and appeals. We have adopted the Word of Para rules concisely as we don’t have that much depth yet in the category.
A swimmer who wishes to be classified as Para by IISA will have to have (1) been classified as Para before, or (2) otherwise, follow the IISA Para Classification application process with our four sub-categories: (1) Physical Impairment, (2) Visual Impairment, (3) Mental Impairment, or (4) Hearing Impairment.
The Para committee will take applications and follow through with the classification process, with help from our Safety and Medical Committee. We also added a Para Icon in the Membership and your Bio if you are in the Category.”
L2 Course
Barkai will hold another L2 course on the September 30th 2024 via Zoom. Information on the IISA website.
Ice Swimming Hall of Fame
Ice Swimming Hall of Fame has changed its name to the International Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (or the ICE Hall of Fame) to align with all other Swimming Halls of Fame naming conventions. The ICE Hall of Fame has also moved to a new website. The ICE Hall of Fame has a board and a chairperson.
It new website is www.iceswimminghalloffame.com.
For more information about the IISA 6th World Championship event, visit here.
IISA World Championship History
Barkai will host the sixth World Championship event. It only took him six years after the IISA was started in 2009 to begin a formal international championship event. The IISA is now conducting events in 46 different countries where athletes from 73 countries have competed with 5,612 registered members. IISA USA was started in 2021 and now has 358 ice swimming members.
- IISA 1st World Championship: Murmansk, Russia in 2015
- IISA 2nd World Championship: Burghausen, Germany in 2017
- IISA 3rd World Championships: Murmansk, Russia in 2019
- IISA 4th World Championship: in Glogow, Poland in 2022
- IISA 5th World Championship in Samoëns, France in 2023
- IISA 6th World Championship: in Molveno, Italy in 2025
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