Samantha Whelpton (41, South Africa, MSF bio here, IISA bio here) has traveled the world from her base in Cape Town to assist, administer, and do ice swims in Poland, France, Italy, Mongolia, England, Netherlands, Antartica, Norway, Russia, Morocco, and Germany (to date).
Whelpton has completed a total of 12 Ice Kilometers and 42 short-distance swims under 5°C water, and 9 International Ice Swimming Association qualifying swims, including a 10.5 km swim from Mlnerton Lighthouse to Bigbay in Cape Town in 3 hours 30 minutes in 10.5°C water. Her coldest swims have included a 800m swim in Svalbard, Norway in -1.0°C water in -15.9°C air within the Arctic Circle in 2022 and an Ice Kilometer swim in Port Lockroy on the Antarctic Peninsula in -1.2°C water and -7.69°C air in 2018. She has also completed an English Channel crossing in 11 hours 23 minutes, a Sea of Galilee crossing in Israel in 6 hours 9 minutes, and 10 Robben Island crossings as well as numerous other coastal swims in South Africa.
On June 8th, she recently completed her first Ice Mile in Borebukta, Svalbard, Norway in 3.41°C water in 29 minutes 8 seconds to join the Iron Icewomen Club, a membership exclusive to ice swimming triathletes who has completed both an Ice Mile and a full Ironman triathlon.
Many years ago in April 2017, she completed the Ironman Nelson Mandela Bay in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, finishing in 12 hours 55 minutes.
Iron Icewomen
- Kellie Joyce Latimer (USA) on 14 December 2014
- Jaimie Monahan (USA) on 2 April 2016
- Claire Bustin-Mulkern (UK) on 25 January 2017
- Conny Prasser (Germany) on 27 January 2017
- Corinna Nolan (Ireland) on 3 February 2018
- Elina Makinen (Finland) on 5 August 2018
- Sophia Nash (Scotland) on 19 January 2019
- Erin Churchill (USA) on 14 December 2019
- Claudia Müller (Austria) on 19 January 2020
- Hanna Bakuniak (Poland) on 22 August 2020
- Cindy Hughes (USA) on 29 November 2020
- Anja Binder (Germany) on 9 August 2021
- Qing Li (USA) on 5 December 2021 (achieved within 29 days)
- Kaetlyn Taylor (USA) on 20 March 2022
- Trisha Harvey (Scotland) on 17 December 2022
- Angela Wood (England) on 17 December 2022
- Madina Kurmanbaeva (Kazakhstan) on 21 January 2023
- Gerda Holla (Netherlands) on 9 September 2023
- Adele Havercroft (England) on 20 January 2024
- McKinlee Hand (USA) on 17 November 2024
- Makala Jones (Wales) on January 2025
- Fay Dellimore (England) on 22 February 2025
- Claudia Müller (Germany) on 13 April 2025
- Claudia Müller (Austria) on 16 June 2025 [second Iron Icewoman achievement within 64 days, Nautical Ice Mile]
- Samantha Whelpton (South Africa) on 8 June 2026
Iron Icemen
- Pádraig Mallon (Ireland) on 20 January 2013
- Paul Fowler (UK) on 29 December 2013
- Stuart Hinde (UK) on 2 March 2014
- Christof Wandratsch (Germany) on 27 December 2014
- Paolo Chiarino (Italy) on 6 January 2015
- John Dyer (UK) on 23 January 2016
- Cerys Thomas (Gibraltar) on 10 February 2016
- Kieron Palframan (South Africa)
- David Coleman (New Zealand) on 14 January 2017
- Leszek Naziemiec (Poland) on 19 March 2017
- Donald McDonald (UK) on 2 February 2018
- Mark Hannigan (Ireland) on 3 February 2018
- Peter Bacon (England) on 3 February 2018
- Uli Munz (Germany) on 3 February 2018
- James Leitch (Scotland) on 10 March 2018
- Andrew Ainge (UK) on 10 March 2018
- Graeme Flitcroft (UK) on 24 March 2018
- Noel Grimes (Ireland) on 19 August 2018
- Ger Kennedy (Ireland)
- Stefan Jung (Germany) on 18 January 2019
- Theo van der Meer (Netherlands) on 18 January 2019
- Philippe Fort (France) on 20 January 2019
- Stephen Rouch (USA) on 23 January 2019
- Mark Dempsey (Ireland) on 2 February 2019
- Joe Zemaitis (USA) on 28 February 2019
- Jerry George (USA) on 28 February 2019
- Alexandre Fuzeau (France) on 4 August 2019 [first within one calendar year for a Guinness World Record
- Lars Mack (Germany) on 4 January 2020
- Darran Cusick (UK) on 7 March 2020
- Hassan Baraka (Morocco) on 21 January 2021
- Alan Gleeson (Ireland) on 30 January 2021
- Albert Stienezen (Netherlands) on 14 January 2022
- William Murphy (Ireland) on 23 January 2022
- Marek Rother (Poland) on 4 September 2022
- Ian Wright (England) on 17 December 2022
- Mark Dempsey (Ireland) on 2 February 2019
- Peter Hancock (Australia) in June 2023
- Robert Vasiliu (Romania) in June 2023
- Marcin Schabowski (Poland) on 3 September 2023
- Philipp Tiefenbrunn (Austria) on 16 June 2024
- Christoph Sivich (Austria) on 6 January 2025
- Johnny O Loughlin (Ireland) on 13 February 2025
- Adam O’Byrne (New Zealand) on 10 July 2025
- Graham Lock (England) on 21 September 2025
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