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The Excitement Has Begun When Winter and The Ice Return

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There are stark differences between the crème de la crème in the aquatic world. While the best athletes in pool swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming culminate their careers with Olympic medals and world records, and then hang up their swimwear (most times, for the rest of their lives), the best in the open water often do some of their most remarkable achievements after being inducted in the Hall of Fame.

Sarah Thomas is one representative example. After being inducted as an Honor Swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in the Class of 2018, Thomas went on to complete swims in the Cook Strait (14 hours 9 minutes), Angel Island (6 hours 9 minutes) Blue Mesa Reservoir (15 hours 36 minutes), unprecedented four-way English Channel (54 hours 10 minutes), Lake Tahoe (11 hours 8 minutes), Santa Barbara Channel (5 hours 7 minutes), Molokai Channel (12 hours 39 minutes), Monterey Bay (15 hours 39 minutes), unprecedented two-way North Channel (21 hours 46 minutes), SCAR Swim, END-WET (13 hours 4 minutes), Swim the Suck (3 hours 29 minutes), and Lake Mead (26 hours 45 minutes) – with more swims planned.

Sally Minty-Gravett, MBE is another example. After being inducted as an Honor Swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in the Class of 2005, she has gone on to complete swims in the Catalina Channel (9 hours 51 minutes), English Channel (17 hours 48 minutes at the age of 56), Channel Islands (8 hours 42 minutes), SCAR Swim at 56, Round Jersey (10 hours 36 minutes and 11 hours 10 minute at 59 and 11 hours 12 minutes at 64), two-way English Channel (36 hours 26 minutes at 59), Robben Island (2 hours 27 minutes), Strait of Gibraltar (5 hours 40 minutes at 61), Lake Tahoe (16 hours 17 minutes at 62), and English Channel (15 hours 30 minutes at 65) – with no end in sight.

The winter swimming and ice swimming heroes are no different.

This year, Honor Swimmer Bárbara Hernández Huerta of Chile, Honor Contributor Colin Hill of Great Britain, Honor Swimmer Elina Mäkinen of Finland, Honor Swimmer Ger Kennedy of Ireland, Honor Contributor Ian Conroy of Ireland, Honor Swimmer Paolo Chiarino of Italy were all deservedly honored by the Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (photos above courtesy of THD Lateral, Alex Voyer, and Shamil Tanna).

Similar to Sarah and Sally across channels and lake, Bárbara, Colin, Elina, Ger, Ian, and Paolo are expected to be fully engaged in the sport of ice swimming. Undoubtedly, they will continue to compete in ice swimming competitions and will plan and achieve all kinds of unprecedented feats in the Ice.

With water temperatures rapidly dropping and snow falling, the excitement in the winter swimming and ice swimming communities in December is in full gear.

Ger Kennedy, as is typical, is reveling in the cold as he plans an unprecedented January relay competition across the 33.5 km English Channel, called the Winter Relay of the English Channel. Five men will race against a team of five women, all hardened and ready to go anytime between their weather window from January 8th to January 25th. The 10 athletes will swim 1-hour legs in the expected 8°C – 9°C water under the auspices of the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation.

The men’s team of Kenney, John Myatt, Stève Stievenart, Vincent Donegan and Lee Johnson are ready to face the women’s team of Debbie Haze, Nicola Doran, Nichola Murch, Marion Joffle, and Michelle Lane who have all been training for months.

Kennedy led a cold water training camp in November in the Faroe Islands, located between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between Norway and Iceland, 320 km north-northwest of mainland Scotland.  He reported, “Faroe is such a beautiful place and warm welcome from the Faroese swimmers. We were the first skin swimmers ever to visit the island so locals were astounded we were swimming for up to 1 hour in 9°C water. They trusted us and welcomed us into the clubhouse and homes to chat. With weather changing every hour, we were lucky to get some cave swims and fjord swimming in with water temperature ranging from 8-9°C and air 3-10°C.”

On the ice swimming calendar, already one event has been completed. The remaining schedule is below:

For more information, visit the International Ice Swimming Association events calendar here.

© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“

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