Keeping Healthy In Barnaul, Russia
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. The health benefits of safely swimming in the cold have been long documented.
As a countermeasure to fight a rash of illnesses at her school 18 year ago, kindergarten director Olesya Osintseva in Barnaul, Russia began a voluntary daily regimen to expose her pupils to 90 seconds of fun in the snow.
Judging from the overall reduction of illnesses at the school and expressions on the faces of the children, her regimen not only keeps the children healthier, but also puts some wide smiles on their faces.
“It was obvious that something needed to be done to make them grow stronger and be more resilient against viruses. This is how we came to the idea of boosting their immunity up by doing this exercise with buckets of chilly water outside in the cold. What six months of these water exercises showed was an immediately stronger resistance to illnesses. Our kids were now able to go to the kindergarten and even if someone had infection, they were no longer catching it,” she explained to the Siberian Times.
We can imagine at least some of these children will be competing in Tyumen and other extreme swimming competitions around the world sometime in the future.
Photos by Andrei Kasprishin of Reuter.
Copyright © 2012 by World Open Water Swimming Association
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.
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