The International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) is the recipient of the 2013 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year for its work in governing and supporting the emerging sport of ice swimming on a global scale. Founder Ram Barkai provided the following statistics regarding the official ice swims accomplished to date, including the number of
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. We do not think the water temperature at a potential ice swim at the Winter Olympics needs to be a specific water temperature. The water could be near 0ºC or 3ºC or 5ºC or even higher. The dramatic visuals of swimsuit-only athletes, protected by only their own hardened bioprene, swimming in an alpine
In Tyumen at the Russian Winter Swimming Championships on December 16th, the ultimate endurance race was conducted in a water temperature of 0.3°C and air temperatures between - 30°C and -33°C. Within the greater battle between swimmers and Mother Nature, another mano-a-mano contest was courageously fought among the giants of the ice swimming community.
