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OUTOFBOUNDS61 EXPLORE61
Outdoors
Mark Johnston, of Polson, recently won gold medals at the U.S. Winter Swimming Championship and the Scandinavian Winter Swimming Championship. COURTESY DANA JOHNSTON
FRIGID ON THE FRINGE Winter swimming popularity on the rise as the mercury drops
One way to test your mettle in winter is to sign up for a penguin plunge or some other iteration of the icy ablution – even if just for an instant, splish-splash- ing in freezing cold water is a bracing experience.
But other, more stoic swimmers actu- ally carve pools out of frozen lakes and race one another, jet-setting around the globe to chase frigid waters and like- minded cold-water competitors.
In the United States, the nascent sport of winter swimming is only just begin- ning to gain momentum, but it’s more popular abroad, especially in Russia, Scandinavia and China.
And in Polson, winter-swimming champion Mark Johnston is something of a big sh in a little pond – even if that pond is Flathead Lake, the largest fresh- water lake west of the Mississippi.
Last month, Johnston, 55, competed in the United States Winter Swimming Championship in the Hudson River, just to the north of the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan. He won the 25- and 50-meter breaststroke and the 200- meter freestyle, placing second in the 25-yard freestyle and third in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events.
In addition to water temperatures
around 37 degrees, swimmers battled Championships.
chop and current in the Hudson River, The World Championships will be held
still trying to hone his skills and tech- nique in the cold water.
As he starts dabbling in longer dis- tances, he’s becoming increasingly aware of the physical limitations of swimming in freezing water.
“In Vermont, I was able to swim on adrenaline and competitive juices, and while I got cold I am such a competitive guy that I didn’t even think about it,” he said. “In New York, competing in the 200 was a di erent experience. The way to stay warm is to go fast but you can’t sprint a 200, so when I started doing the longer races I really felt the cold.”
Johnston said the ultimate achieve- ment in extreme winter-swimming is the “Icy Mile,” which only 140 or so peo- ple have completed – a full mile in water that is 40 degrees or less.
If anyone can do it, Johnston can – he’s just not sure he wants to.
“During my rst 200-meter race, I realized I wasn’t enjoying myself. It was too cold. During my second 200-meter race I was completely dialed in mentally and afterward I thought, ‘I could go fur- ther,’” he said. “But at some point phys- iology wins. I don’t think you can really acclimatize yourself after a certain point. I don’t want to nd that point.”
while winter swimming
rules dictate no wetsuits, BY TRISTAN SCOTT while Johnston wishes he
in Siberia in March, and
and most open-water competitors opt to wear Speedos and swimming caps.
Then on Valentine’s Day, Johnston competed in the Scandinavian Winter Swimming Championship in Skellefteå, Sweden, about 75 miles from the Arc- tic Circle, where recent temperatures recently dipped to -38 degrees.
The event drew more than 300 partic- ipants, and Johnston earned three gold medals.
“It’s funny to all of a sudden be doing incredibly well in these events and be considered a winter swimming cham- pion,” Johnston said recently, having returned to Polson and his backyard training lake. “There are certainly faster people than me, but hell, they didn’t show up. And who knows how Michael Phelps would handle the freezing water. It’s not for everyone.”
You can say that again.
Although popular in northern coun- tries in Europe and Asia (China’s win- ter swimming association has 1.2 mil- lion members), 2016 marked only the second U.S. Winter Swimming National
could attend, it’s not logis-
tically feasible.
But Johnston is grateful for the oppor-
tunity to compete in a pair of major win- ter-swimming events this year, and said he’s most proud to have represented the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Johnston is not a tribal member, but last year he asked for special permis- sion from the tribal council to represent the Tribes when he competed at the inau- gural U.S. Winter Swimming Champion- ship in Lake Memphremagog, in New- port, Vermont.
In Sweden, the announcers declared that the event had drawn competitors from 17 nations around the globe, includ- ing the CSKT.
“I really enjoy being an ambassador for the tribes,” he said. “Even though I am a non-native, I am honored to compete under the Flathead Nation ag.”
Johnston has been a competitive swimmer and coach for years, but his interest in open-water swimming and, most recently, cold-water winter swim- ming, is a burgeoning passion.
Competitively, he’s a natural, but he’s
tscott@ atheadbeacon.com
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FEBRUARY 24, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM