The first Winter Swimming World Championships held in Russia took place in Tyumen from 8 to 12 March 2016. There were 1,275 swimmers from 42 countries, the oldest aged 91 and the youngest eight. Events covered 25, 50 and 100 metres in various disciplines — freestyle, breaststroke and relays — plus 200 and 450 metres freestyle, across different age groups. The Czech swimmers’ results were outstanding: the Czech Republic won seven medals, two gold, one silver and four bronze, and finished an excellent seventh overall among the participating countries!
I. PKO swimmers contributed more than half of those medals: four in total. Petr Šlajs won gold over 450 metres and silver over 200; Lucie Leišová and Ivan Landa each took 450-metre bronze. There were other highly valuable results too, including excellent fourth places for Jakub Valníček over 200 and 450 metres and fine performances by Zuzana Pátková, Jack Bright, Michal Kohoutek and Josef Stolín. Simply wonderful.
To sum up the championships: we all travelled to Tyumen with plenty of questions. How would we cope with the long journey? What would the accommodation and food be like? How would we spend our free time? What about the weather and organisation? Above all, how would we swim, and would everyone come through it in good health? Those questions began to disappear, in the best possible way, from our very first days there. We were all surprised by how smoothly everything was organised, the excellent weather and swimming conditions — air around −7°C at midday, water at 0.5°C with ice slush in the lanes in the morning, sunshine even providing some “warmth” throughout the championships — and the excellent care for swimmers, particularly over the longer distances: hot towels, saunas and hot baths. Finally, our club achieved superb results. Add very decent accommodation, an interesting programme outside the races, trouble-free travel and good food, and “Tyumen 2016” was faultless!
The first Russian-hosted world championships in Tyumen are now behind us. Only after returning to the Czech Republic and our Vltava in Braník did the significance of our success fully sink in: for each of us personally, for I. PKO and for the whole Czech winter swimming movement. It is a shame that the Czech media showed virtually no interest in this group of enthusiasts’ achievement, but that is life for “small” sports. We can only add that next year we will try to repeat our success and, if we do, make it better known. It is a great challenge and motivation: we must keep enjoying winter swimming and training properly, and success will surely follow. More than words, the accompanying photographs capture the atmosphere of this fascinating, successful and thoroughly enjoyable trip.
Note: the following reports covered the championships and results (in Czech):
- Czech swimmers at the Winter Swimming World Championships – zimni-plavani.info,
- Report from the World Championships in Tyumen – FIDES Brno (by Jakub Valníček and Pavel Kouřil),
- Swimmers cut themselves on ice slush: Czech wins championship in the Russian winter – xman.idnes.cz (Xman’s interview with Petr Šlajs on iDnes.cz),
- Winter swimming world champion comes from Czech Technical University – aktualne.cvut.cz,
- Petr Šlajs, winter swimming world champion – web.fsv.cvut.cz.
Ivan Landa’s photo gallery
