Ice Pool Swimming

Chill pill: Ice to sauna

1,200 veterans and first-times from 18 nations compete for deep-freeze honors.

By Matti Hunntanen

HELSINKI, Finland - Wet and shivering on the ice, swimming contestants from 18 countries headed straight for the saunas on Saturday after having raced each other through the near-freezing waters of the Baltic Sea.

The Ice Pool Swimming World Championships, organized for the first time this year, pitted more than 1,200 veteran ice swimmers and first-time adventurers up against each other.

Most swimmers were from Finland, and nearby Russia, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia - where people sometimes are seen taking winter dips in holes cut into frozen ponds and rivers. Some contestants, though, came from as far away as spain, Turkey, Kazakstan and Japan.

"Never again. I'm nuts," Richard Tivnann, a banker from London, said after finishing third in a 25-yard opening heat. "It was my first time in the water, and it'll be my last."

The two-day event, which opened Saturday in freezing temperatures under clear blue skies, included 25-year and 50-year races in various age groups. The top six times in each group advance to the finals.

Competitors swam in a giant six-lane ice hole, cut into the frozen sea near the rowing stadium built for the 1952 Olympics.

The water temperature measured 30 degrees, organizers said, but the air was colder at 19 degrees with a strong wind.

Hundred of onlookers, as well as paramedics and divers, surrounded the ice hold during the event. "We wanted to make ice swimming better known world-wide," said Tuomo Jantunen, chairman of the Finish ski Track Association, which co-sponsored the event with the Helsinki Canoe Club.

"Next year, the world championships will be held in central Finland, and the Russians have expressed interest to host them in 2002," he said.

The few rules set were strictly adhered to. Only breaststroke was allowed, and diving was forbidden. Races began with contestants standing on underwater platforms that left just their head and shoulders above the water.

Competitors were not allowed to use 'external or internal substances" to protect their bodies or keep warm. A brandy toast after the race is enough, Jantunen said.

They were allowed, though, to wear woolen hats to protect their heads - "probably the only thing that functions after they get out of the water," Jantunen said.

Nariman Moutazaev from St. Petersburg, Russia, celebrated his 71st birthday Saturday by taking the plunge.

"It was wet, very wet. But it was good; I enjoyed it," said Mourtazaev, who added he has practiced cold water swimming for 35 years. He declined to make use of one of six saunas available to competitors.

The popularity of winter swimming has grown in Finland, with cities organizing safe, public holes in lakes and the sea. An estimated 50,000 Finns - 10 percent of the population - have tried it, and 80,000 are regular winter swimmers. They claim it helps both to ward off colds and illnesses and to cope better with stress.

Professor William R. Keating from the University of London said there was little health risk in cold-water swimming unless a person starts suddenly at an old age.

"The benefits can be very great, " said Keating, who was to speak on the topic at a symposium after the competition. "it can stimulate mental processes, produce hormones which make the body able to cope with physical stresses and can increase the level of mental awareness and a feeling of well-being."

But it's not for everyone. "They are really mad. You wouldn't get me in there for any money," said Tero Silvennoinen, 21, a student from west Finland, stamping his cold feet on the snowy ice.

From the Sun Sentinel, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 2/27/00