Keaton Jones Talks About The IISA 6th World Championship

Keaton Jones (USA, 20, IISA bio here, @keatonjones_swim), a sophomore at the University of California Berkeley and 2024 Paris Olympian in the 200m backstroke, recently returned home to California.

While he is in the middle of his collegiate studies and in the midst of the American collegiate swimming season, his college coach Olympic coach Dave Durden (@davedurden1) trusted him to continue his training for the NCAA Division I National Championships while he was representing the USA at the IISA 6th World Championship in Molveno, Italy where the water temperature was 1.8°C (35°F).

After a strenuous high-altitude training camp at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Jones left for Italy with his sister Ezmee Jones (USA, 17, IISA bio here, @ezmeejones) and his parents.

In the video below, he talks about swimming in such cold water temperatures, rewarming, competing, his future ice swimming goals, and, most incredibly, training for his collegiate season between the heats and finals at the IISA 6th World Championship.

But he also writes well about his recent experiences in Molveno and beyond in a recent Instagram post, “A lot of people in the swimming world do not understand ice swimming. For me, it started out as a chance to do something different, travel to a cool place, and maybe get into the record books.

This time around, I broke records, I won races and for the first time ever, Americans not only stood on the podium for the distance relay, but the USA stood on the top [4 x 250m mixed freestyle relay]. I stood on the podium multiple times, but this was by far the sweetest victory of them all.

I still have more personal goals in this sport. I’m not sure you can lay claim to being a pure ice swimmer until you tackle a distance event. No American has ever been crowned the Queen or King of the Ice. I have to at least try and see how far I can push myself.

But all of these are secondary to why I continue to show up at these events. This community, these athletes, their stories of perseverance, spirit and sheer will, the pervasive desire to challenge oneself and to go against the grain of simply existing and instead live wild and embrace the extraordinary. If this community asks me to come, I will continue to show up, gladly standing shoulder to shoulder with the best people from around the world and I will try to use my small platform to shine a light on this incredible sport.

But then I wonder…. should we keep this magic to ourselves?

Until championship season rolls around again, it will have to suffice that “Take your clothes off” will only haunt my dreams. Until next time, stay cool my fellow ice athletes.“

Over the five-day championship schedule, he was busy, training between sessions and swimming 15 times over 5 days:

1st in 100m backstroke (setting a world record in 59.01)
1st in 50m backstroke (setting a new world record in 27.21)
1st in the 50m freestyle (setting a new world record in 24.67)
1st in 100m freestyle (setting a new world record in 53.71)
1st in 100m butterfly (setting a new world record in 57.18)
2nd in the 50m butterfly
part of the winning 4 x 250m mixed freestyle relay with Ezmee Jones, Lisa Yamamoto, and Stephen Rouch where his split time was 2:25.84 (faster than the winning time of 2:36.36 in the individual event)
8th in the 4×50 medley relay with Ezmee Jones, Mariah Reading, and Stephen Rouch
6th in the 4×50 freestyle relay with Ezmee Jones, Mariah Reading, and Stephen Rouch