The slightly loopy sport of Ice Swimming
There are some extreme sports out there that can kill you and then there are some that are relatively benign. Ice swimming is definitely one that can kill you. In ice swimming the player runs and leaps into freezing waters and swims a certain distance.
The practice is very popular in Scandinavia along with Russia, where the activity is claimed to have therapeutic properties. The sport is slowly spreading across the world, and it now followed in North America as well as China. With people’s desire to always
be on the lookout for new extreme sports, this could be the next big thing to hit the sports world.
The practice of people taking their clothes off and swimming in freezing cold water is somewhat crazy. The exact history of the sport is not known but it seems to be a very old tradition in Europe. It could simply have been that someone in the past was forced
to jump into a body of freezing water and probably found the experience invigorating so decided to continue it. Slowly, as the years went by, more people tried it and thought it was a quirky, yet refreshing thing to take part in. Then others came along to
test their strength and ability to swim great distances in the cold water. Over time, ice swimming became an established sport in the colder countries of the world.
In modern times, the sport of ice swimming has become large and people from different parts of the world take part in it. There are two types of swimming in freezing temperatures; one is what is traditionally known as ice swimming and the other is called
winter swimming. The first one is swimming in a body of water that is at or close to freezing temperature. The next one is called winter swimming and it involves simply swimming in a body of water during the winter months and does not have to be done in freezing
water, depending on the country it takes place in.
There are several dangers to swimming in such cold temperatures. The first is hypothermia, where a person’s core temperature drops below the level that is required for normal bodily functions to occur and in extreme cases can lead to death. The swimmers
have to always take part in the activity in groups where some people can warm them up quickly, in extreme conditions. Another danger is getting trapped under the freezing water. When a swimmer enters the water from a hole in the ice and swims to another hole
some distance away, they can become disorientated and lose their way to the other hole. This can lead to drowning, since there are no other openings in the ice surface above them.
There are other dangers that a first time ice swimmer should look out for. Since the water is extremely cold, the body of the swimmer involuntarily lock sup and he instinctively takes a breath. When they do, they breathe in a lot of water at once and due
to the panic setting in the cold temperature, there is a strong chance of a person drowning. Ice swimming is usually short because cold water is known to rob the body of its core heat 32 times faster than cold air does. Prolonged exposure to the water at freezing
temperatures can have long lasting effects on a person.
Despite the risk involved in the ice swimming, the sport is gaining popularity all over the world. Ice swimming has been taking place in Scandinavia and Russia since long, but it is also done in China. There is a river in the Harbin province of China called
the Songhua River and acts as a home to regular ice swimming escapades. People come from far and wide to jump into extremely cold water. In America, there are several ice swimming clubs that have sprung up. The biggest one is the Polar Bear Club where people
go swimming in ice cold water usually for charity. A lot of people, and sometimes athletes, join together to raise funds for Special Olympics by jumping into lakes and rivers in winter.
This unique sport will probably be held at small scale levels, since there are not too many people willing to go and take a dip in freezing water. However, nothing in sports is for certain, as it may become the next big extreme sport in a few years, with
regular competitions and tournaments taking place.
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