The Center of Ice Swimming World Championship

The III Ice Swimming World Championship and the 1st Arctic Cup will be held in Murmansk from March 14 to March 18. 110 people from 30 countries want to swim a kilometer in the Semenovskoye Lake. About 300 extreme swimmers applied for a shorter distance within the Arctic Cup, one third of them are from Murmansk. Chairman of the physical culture and sport committee of the Murmansk administration Irina Andreeva tells what awaits participants and fans on these events.

The history of Ice Swimming World Championship began in Murmansk in 2015, soon after the creation of the International Ice Swimming Association with Rem Barkay in the leadership. The administration and the physical education and sport committee of Murmansk enthusiastically accepted his proposal to make our city a world center of ice swimming and to hold the I Ice Swimming World Championship here. Due to the climate of the Kola Polar region and the efforts of the organizers, the competition was held at the highest level, which, as Ram Barkai said, is unlikely for anyone to outdo.

“The second Ice Swimming World Championship was successfully held in 2017 in Germany, and the third international association proposed to organize the Championship again in Murmansk,” Irina Evgenievna said. - In addition, we improve the comfort and safety level for athletes, the location of the “pool” for competitions is perfect, because Semenovskoye Lake is practically the center of the city. The Lapland center is on its shore, where are necessary changing rooms, sauna, toilets and medical examination rooms are located. This is convenient not only for swimmers, but also for fans.

This year, as in 2015, a pool will consist of 10 tracks 25 meters long, which will be equipped with an electronic system of fixing the start and finish, and also with an electronic scoreboard. Such a pool will allow to hold ice swimming competitions among 100 athletes in one day. This year more than a hundred participants have already registered, therefore the Championship will last for two days - on March 15 and 16. While in 2015 swimmers arrived in Murmansk from 22 countries, this year representatives from 30 countries submitted applications. Greece, Spain, Morocco, Mongolia, Romania and Ukraine are among them.

“We welcome all guests, it will be especially interesting to share experiences with Belarus and China, where winter swimming is recognized as an official sport,” Irina Andreeva said. - Rem Barkay looks even further and wants to see ice swimming in the list of Olympic sports. For this he plans to invite a representative of the International Olympic Committee to Ice Swimming World Championship in Murmansk.

News source: vmnews.ru/novosti/2019/01/20/v-murmanske-30-stran-okazhutsia-v-odnoi-prorubi

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