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The winter swimming community hosts the World Championships every 2 years in various locations around the world. Ropveigimi, Lapland, the official home of Santa Claus, was this year’s location.
This year I was invited to take part in the 450m as one of the 2 swimmers to fly the Irish Flag.
450m is the longest distance in winter competitions and though we have completed 1000m plus, these are demonstration swims and applications are accepted based on your experience. The competitions attracted over 1000 swimmers worldwide. It was again fantastic to see the flag flying high on the bridge.
It was my first time competing in a frozen river. The pool was prepared by cutting a 25m hole with enough space for 8 lanes out of the ice and the water, though it is classified as 0º C, had a much colder bite to it.
For me things were a little difficult this year as my father had just passed away a fortnight before and the one thing that is certain is that with the ice there is nowhere to hide. Your body and your mind have to be 100% in working order. Most drownings happen from anxiety and over 80% happen in fresh water, I was both anxious and in fresh water.
When you put your face in the ice, your breathing becomes ragged and difficult. The rest of the pain I could handle, but if you can’t breathe you can’t swim.
Our flights to leave Finland were at 5.50pm, our swims were at 2.30pm so we were very short on time, but we were content that we would make it.
The first race a competitor from Russia had a heart attack in the water and once he was recovered from the water and was being tended to, it was pushing out our swim starts. As the man was taken to hospital our swim starts were now 40 minutes behind schedule. My anxiety levels were now through the roof.
I don’t breast stroke but I knew that if I wanted to finish then I would have to keep my head above the water. The start of the race involves an hour’s preparation as standing around in the ice chills the body so we retire to the tents to reheat. Once I got to the pool and started to undress I told my lane attendant that I would be breast stroking and not to be alarmed.
No where did it become important that this was the World Championships, we don’t have the same adrenaline levels as the warm water swimmers, and the margin for error is too great for high fives and lack of attention to details. Get in, get out and get recovered that’s the motto.
The horn went and nice and relaxed I breast stroked my way though my lengths. Time in the water, I had already spent 23 mins at 0 deg and today would be 50% of that. Stay alive. I enjoyed my ambling and every 4 lengths I would front crawl 2 lengths. My breathing too challenged, up my head and smile at the crowd.
Once I got out of the pool, I ran to the tents but time was now 3.45pm-We needed to be at the airport in an hour! Frozen, we decided to abandon the sauna and head straight to hot tub. Jumping into the hot tub was the worst pain I had ever experienced as the blood was forced to my peripherals. I had to get my feet and hand out. My ass was in and my feet and hands out. A few Russian buddies were covering my feet in snow to slow down the blood flow. It was horrendous but we had a flight to catch.
I was like a hen on a hot gridle-jumping in and out. After 10 minutes though we were not recovered and we had to go.
The fastest way back to the hotel was snow mobile sled. This was excellent until the sled got stuck. Out we jumped, pushed the sled up the river bank and ran to the hotel, feet still frozen.
The Airport was only 15 mins away and once we got there the flight was delayed by 90 minutes.
3 cups tea later, I got an email to say that I won a bronze medal in the World Championships in the 450m.
