Paul Georgescu Sets Another World Record
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Ice swimmers can deal with bitter, bone-chilling cold better than any other humans alive. Paul Georgescu of Romania joined his ice swimming colleagues like Hamza Bakircioglu, Aleksandr Brylin, Andrey Sychev, Paul Duffield and Henri Kaarma in a very special category at the highest echelon of cold water endurance.
Ger Kennedy reported on Georgescu’s ice swim in Romania’s Complex Sportiv Snagov that was officiated today by 4-time Olympian and reigning ice swimming world champion Petar Stoychev. “Paul has just completed an astonishing distance of 3.5 km in the ice, swimming in 57 minutes. The water temperature was between 4.1°C – 4.3°C. This is an unofficial ice swimming world record, breaking the existing record set by Hamza Bakircioglu.
Paul is well, recovered and safe.
Georgescu said, “The last few hundreds meters, my mouth was solid frozen. I started swallowing lake water as I struggled to controlled my frozen mouth muscles. I had to stop a lot and I was concerned I may not finish. But suddenly it was over.”
Some of the early pioneers of endurance ice swimming were Russians Aleksandr Brylin and Andrey Sychev who set an early duration record when Brylin was in the water for 1 hour 5 seconds in 0.3°C water swimming 2.2 km while Sychoyovy was in that same water for 1 hour 1 minute 43 seconds, swimming 2.25 km in Tyumen, Russia in December 2012.
Top Endurance Ice Swimmers:*
- Paul Georgescu (42, Romania) 3.5 km in 57 minutes 56 seconds in February 2021 in 4.43°C lake water
- Hamza Bakircioglu (48, Turkey) 3.44 km in 1 hour 8 minutes in February 2018 in 4.13°C sea water and 0.00°C air
- Jack Boyle (25,) Ireland 3.3 km in 54 minutes 59 seconds in February 2016 in 4.63°C pool water
- Carmel Collins (41, Ireland) 3.3 km in 57 minutes 45 seconds in February 2016 in 4.63°C pool water and 8.00°C air
- Andrew Allum (46, Great Britain) 2.99 km in 47 minutes 25 seconds in February 2015 in 4.60°C open water and 7.00°C air
- Henri Kaarma (46, Estonia) 2.4 km in 41 minutes 57 seconds in March 2013 in 0.01°C open water and 0.00°C air
- Paul Duffield (51, Canada) 2.32 km in 54 minutes 2 seconds in March 2013 in 4.00°C open water and 0°C air
- Colleen Mallon (35, Ireland) 2.32 km in 32 minutes 49 seconds in August 2020 in 4.27°C lake water and 1.00°C air
- Ram Barkai (63, South Africa) 2.3 km in 43 minutes in January 2009 in 4.00°C open water and 0.00°C air
- Bhakti Sharma (31, India) 2.28 km in 41 minutes 14 seconds in January 2015 in 1.00°C open water and 4.00°C air
- Aleksandr Brylin (44, Russia) 2.2 km in 1 hour 5 minutes 6 seconds in December 2012 in 0.03°C open water and -33.00°C air
- Andrey Sychev (54, Russia) 2.2 km in 1 hour 6 minutes 30 seconds in December 2012 in 0.03°C open water and -33.00°C air
- Paul Bieber (37, Germany) 2.2 km in 43 minutes 3 seconds in January 2021 in 4.90°C lake water and 3.20°C air
- Henri Kaarma (46, Estonia) 2.16 km in 33 minutes in March 2013 in 0.01°C open water and 0.00°C air
- Jochen Aumüller (43, Germany) 2.14 km in 39 minutes 33 seconds in February 2015 in 4.57°C open water
- James Brown (Great Britain) 2.12 km in 54 minutes 27 seconds in November 2013 in 3.90°C open water and 2.50°C air
- Mark Dempsey (45, Ireland) 2.12 km in 45 minutes 21 seconds in January 2021 in 4.93°C river water and 5.20°C air
- Jonty Warneken (48, Great Britain) 2.11 km in 58 minutes 54 minutes in January 2014 in 4.87°C open water and 7.50°C air
- Ger Kennedy (51, Ireland) 2.09 km in 51 minutes 10 seconds in March 2014 in 3.30°C open water and 2.50°C air
- Zdeněk Tlamicha (48, Czech Republic) 2.01 km in January 2014 in 42 minutes 15 seconds in 3.80°C open water and 3.0°C air
- Jaroslav Chytil (45, Czech Republic) in 2.01 km in 57 minutes 50 seconds in March 2016 4.33°C lake water and 3.80°C air
- Ger Kennedy (51, Ireland) 2.01 km in 43 minutes 10 seconds in December 2017 in 0.50°C pool water and -15.0°C air
- Michael Pranckl (47, Austria) 2.01 km in 34 minutes 11 seconds in August 2020 in 3.90°C lake water and 3.30°C air
- Charmian Frend (51, Australia) 2.01 km in 37 minutes 4 seconds in August 2020 in 4.07°C lake water and 4.80°C air
- Amanda Bell (49, Great Britain) 2.0 km in 44 minutes 4 seconds in February 2014 in 4.70°C open water and 0.0°C air
- Theo Pearson (35, Great Britain) 2.0 km in 38 minutes 38 seconds in November 2016 in 4.00°C lake water and -2.20°C air
- Claire Ryan (42, Ireland) 2.0 km in 56 minutes 19 seconds in January 2021 in 4.70°C lake water and 1.00°C air
* These swimmers have gone well beyond the Ice Mile.
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