UPDATED 20 December 2025 ▶️ — Invitation to the Memorial: ČT24 television interview (in Czech)
I. plavecký klub otužilců Praha warmly invites you to the 79th Christmas swimming competition in the Vltava — the Alfred Nikodém Memorial.
This historic, well-known cold-water swimming event will take place on Friday 26 December 2025, Boxing Day, at 11 am in the Vltava beside Prague’s National Theatre.
Cold-water swimmers from Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, England, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Spain, Moldova, Hungary and Colombia will take part. The course crosses the Vltava between Střelecký and Slovanský islands, with both start and finish on the shore of Slovanský Island. The distances are 100, 300 and 750 m.
In the Vltava we will see both elite swimmers with international honours and recreational cold-water swimmers, who come above all for the joy of healthy exercise shared with like-minded friends.
Two weeks before the event, the water temperature is around 6°C. Although the pre-Christmas forecast suggests air temperatures mostly just above freezing, experience tells us we cannot confidently expect swimmers to earn cold-water swimming performance grades at the National Theatre this year. Those can only be achieved in ‘ice water’, defined as water at or below 4°C.
The Vltava’s flow rate should be favourable this year. It is currently close to the ‘drought’ threshold, and almost no rainfall is forecast.
As usual, the programme includes a team competition based on each participating club’s three highest-placed swimmers. The Mayor of Prague 1, Terezie Radoměřská, will present the Prague 1 Cup in person.
All awards will again be presented in the ceremonial Small Hall of Žofín Palace. Each year, a considerable number of swimmers leave before the prize-giving. They may not realise that it also includes a generous raffle with many lovely prizes. There are usually enough prizes for most people still in the hall to win something, so plan your departure carefully…
Further details, especially for swimmers, are in the official competition details (in Czech).
Instructions for participants:
- Check-in — Žofín Palace: please stay inside only as long as necessary.
- Changing facilities: we have not hired the basement (the Knights’ Hall) this year. Everyone will therefore change in large heated tents beside Žofín Palace, marked for men and women.
Another tent will provide a mixed changing area at the very tip of the island, closest to the start. - Swimmer marking and timing: 750 m swimmers will have their race numbers marked on their bodies in another tent beside Žofín Palace. Every swimmer in this event must also collect a timing chip there and wear it for the swim. The finish is recorded by touching the finish board.
The recreational 100 m and 300 m swims are non-competitive: swimmers are not marked, do not collect chips and are not timed. - Food: the Memorial classic — sausages and bread. Vegetarians are catered for without any need to notify us in advance: simply collect your meat-free meal at check-in instead of a meal voucher.
- Schedule: the 750 m swimmers will go to the start immediately after the opening assembly, starting in several waves within a single heat. The first wave is provisionally scheduled for 11:15 am.
The event is once again part of the Czech Union of Sport’s project ‘Sportuj s námi’ (‘Play Sport with Us’).
Our main partner is Pražské Benátky. The event also receives support from Pražská plynárenská, Bytostav, SUPTel, Etewa, Fiskars, Born To Swim, Elektroštika, Jůzek-elektro, Masi-co, the family jewellery business JK Jitka Kudláčková, Prague’s Fire Rescue Service, Prague City Hall and Prague 1.
Main event partner
Partners
Cold-water swimmers’ baptism
Come along on Sunday 4 January 2026 at 3 pm for our traditional cold-water swimmers’ baptism in Prague-Braník, in the arm of the Vltava beside Camping Kotva. The nearest tram stop is Nádraží Braník, served by tram routes 2, 3, 17 and 21.