Updated with a link to the TV Metropol interview.
On Sunday 23 March 2014, I. plavecký klub otužilců Praha is holding an event to remember Alfred Nikodem and his legacy in cold-water swimming. To mark 150 years since his birth on 25 March 1864, we will meet at his grave in Vyšehrad’s Slavín cemetery at noon on Sunday 23 March 2014, then walk down to the Vltava for a symbolic swim.
At the grave, Jan Novák — an I. PKO member who crossed the English Channel several times in the 1970s — will deliver a tribute. On the riverbank where we enter the Vltava, there will be a small exhibition of objects from Alfred Nikodem’s estate. His descendants entrusted these to I. PKO as a moral legacy of the founder of cold-water swimming in Czechoslovakia. Their representative, Miroslava Košumberská, whose father was Nikodem’s nephew, will also attend to support the event.
As another event in Prague, not organised by I. PKO, will also celebrate this anniversary, we would like to point out that, alongside the moral support of Alfred Nikodem’s descendants, I. plavecký klub otužilců Praha — the Czech Republic’s oldest and largest winter swimming club — organises the Alfred Nikodem Memorial every 26 December in the Vltava beside Prague’s National Theatre. Hundreds of swimmers from across the country and abroad enjoy this most traditional of gatherings in a Christmas atmosphere. This season saw its 67th edition. Our club is also the sole owner of the “MEMORIÁL ALFREDA NIKODÉMA” trademark.
Practical information: all cold-water swimmers are welcome, with no entry fee. Choose a distance suited to your level of cold-water preparation. Advance registration is unnecessary. For information, call 606 754 905 or email tomas-prokop@seznam.cz.
Come and remember him with us — and enjoy a swim!
Links:
• TV Metropol, Pražský Expres — interview with Petr Hubal about Sunday’s event — http://www.metropol.cz/porady/prazsky-expres/7001/ (from 36:20).
See the map for the meeting point and swimming location.
