Swimmer feels 'buzz' at ice swimming championships

A woman representing Great Britain at the Ice Swimming World Championship says she feels a "sense of achievement" in taking part.

Competitors are swimming in water 5C or less at the sixth international event, which is taking place in Molveno, Italy.

Wendy Bates, from the Seagulls Swimming Club in Christchurch, Dorset, told the BBC: "Once you warm up, the buzz is such a good feeling afterwards."

Elizabeth Mills from the Poole Swimming Club is also taking part and often trains with Ms Bates at the Shaftesbury Lido.

The competition sees more than 700 swimmers from more than 45 countries take part in races including freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.

The championship's longest event, the 1km race, can last up to 20 minutes.

Unlike most swimming races, swimmers do not dive into the pool at the start of the race, and push off from the wall after one length instead of doing tumble turns.

Ms Mills competes in the butterfly on Thursday.

Ms Bates swam 500m in 2.3C water temperatures and -2C air temperatures on Tuesday.

"They've been removing the ice because it froze over the last couple of days," she explained.

"My hands were completely frozen, I couldn't feel [them].

"And warming up at the end after recovery is not particularly nice, there's a lot of shivering."

But she said while she was "nervous" beforehand, and the freezing temperatures were a "bit of a shock" it was a "really good experience".

Ms Bates finished fourth in her age group and is still to take part in the 250m and 100m.

Ms Bates' route to ice swimming began with a swim across the English Channel last year, where as part of her training she would jump into cold water to acclimatise for the challenge.

"It turns out the Channel's quite warm," she said.

"I was doing some kind of winterised swimming, and then I really enjoyed it, so me and my friend went to Germany in 2022 for the Christmas markets and a swim.

"We did just one length and we enjoyed it so much that in the following year we were entering competitions."

The International Ice Swimming Association was formed in 2009.

It aims to eventually become a winter Olympic sport, as the "first sport which will allow swimmers to compete in winter and summer Olympic Games in the same sport".

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