4th IISA World Championships
- February 4-6, 2021
- Glogow, Poland
- Short Course Meters (25 meters)
- 3 degrees Celsius water temperature (37.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
- PDF Results
- World Records PDF
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The fourth International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) World Championship concluded Sunday morning after three days of intense racing.
Ice swimming is a swimming competition done in a 25-meter pool with a water temperature of fewer than five degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit). Some other differences from regular swimming include swimmers starting in the water instead of the starting blocks and flip turns being banned. The pool used this championship meet was 3 degrees Celsius (37.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
A big highlight of world championships was that Marcin Szarpak, Alisa Fatum, and Karolina Szalast combined for seven individual world records.
13 total individual world records were broken at the 4th International Ice Swimming Association World Championship. However, it is important to note that six of the world records were set in events that had never been swum before the championships (100-meter freestyle, 50-meter backstroke, 100-meter individual medley). In addition, the 250-meter freestyle had only been swum at IISA qualifying meets in early 2022, as previous world championships had contested the 200-meter freestyle event instead.
These records and a wider range of events indicate that higher levels of competition are beginning to grow within the sport of ice swimming.
The host country won nine out of the ten individual events contested on the men’s side, but only two out of ten on the women’s side.
Szarpak, a Polish, kicked off the meet with a dominant performance in the 500 meter-freestyle, winning the event almost 40 seconds faster than the second-place competitor. In the process, his time of 5:38.97 shattered the previous world record held by Sven Efferich, which was a 5:56.76. Szarpak’s previous best time was a 6:03.30, which made him the third-fastest performer of time in the event before his world record today.
The next day, Szarpak became the IISA-proclaimed “King Of The Ice” by winning the 1000 meter freestyle (also called the ice kilometer). He swum a time of 11:48.10, which was 11 seconds faster than second-place finisher Bartomiej Kubkowski, who went a time of 11:59.89. His time also overtook Sven Efferich’s world record of 11:55.40 from 2019, dethroning him to become the new king.
The 250-meter freestyle race was a little bit closer. Although Szarpak still took the win in a world record time of 2:45.77, his countrymate Jakub Muszynski was only four-tenths of a second behind him to take second place in a time of 2:46.19. Another Polish, Mieszko Palmi-Kukiełko, took bronze in a time of 2:53.36. Szarpak, Muzyski, and Palmi-Kukieko together rewrote the record books and their times are now the top three of all-time in the event.
The 20-year old is an active national-level competitor in his native Poland. Under “normal pool” conditions, he holds personal bests of 1:55.05/3:59.62 in the 200/400 short course meters freestyle that were swum at the 2019 Polish Winter National Championships. This meet marked his first-ever ice swimming world championships.
Another dominant performer at the championship was German Alisa Fatum, IISA’s “Queen Of the Ice”. She won the 500-meter freestyle by about 40 seconds in a time of 6:19.32 and the 1000 meter freestyle by about 30 seconds in a time of 13:06.18. Those times are short of her world record times of 6:13.50/12:48.70 in those events, but still make for a dominant performance.
In addition, Fatum also won the 100-meter freestyle (1:05.41) and the 100-meter individual medley (1:16.81). Although these times are technically considered world records, this is only because these events have never been contested at a world championship before.
In the 50 meter freestyle, another event in which Fatum holds a world record in, she was pushed down to fifth and swum a time of 31.26. Her countrymate Alexa Xenia Ortwein took this event in a time of 30.73, which makes her the #2 performer of all-time in the event. Fatum remains the only woman under 30 seconds in 50 free, with her world record from 2019 still standing at 29.63.
Fatum also finished second in the 50-meter backstroke (34.90), second in the 250-meter freestyle (2:57.04) and fifth in the 50-meter butterfly (34.66). Fatum, considered one of the most decorated ice swimmers of all time, is not new to the world championships scene. She won two world titles in the 500/1000 freestyle at world championships in 2019, and is a frequent competitor in the IISA World Cup series.
The third star of this meet was 16-year-old Polish Karolina Szalast, who broke world records in the 50-meter butterfly and 250-meter freestyle in her first world championships. Her young age indicates that she still has many fast swims left in the tank in ice swimming.
Szalast, like Szarpak, is an active national-level competitor in Poland. She recently finished 12th overall in the 1500 meter freestyle (long course) in a personal-best time of 18:11.08. She holds personal bests of 2:17.36 and 31.69 in the 200 free and 50 fly respectively long course.
She won the 50-meter butterfly by almost a second in a time of 32.08, overtaking Elina Makinen’s previous mark of 32.53 from 2019. In the 250 meter freestyle, she narrowly defeated Fatum by two-tenths of a second in a time of 2:56.81. She and Fatum became the first women under the three-minute mark, destroying Hanna Bakuniak’s previous world record of 3:10.76.
Other Results:
- Marion Joffle of France took the women’s 100-meter breaststroke in a world record time of 1:24.00, five-hundredths of a second faster than Aleksandra Bednarek’s previous record of 1:24.05 from 2019. She placed second in the 50-meter breaststroke to German Franziska Partheymuller, who won in a time of 39.30.
- Polish Michal Perl (26.24), German Christoph Karrow (26.61), and Polish Slawomir Wilkowski (26.74) all overtook American Quinn Fitzgerald’s previous world record mark of 26.94 in the men’s 50-meter freestyle.
- Perl also won the men’s 100-meter breaststroke in a time of 1:13.23. He was defeated in the 50-meter breaststroke, placing second to German Tobias Wybierk, who won the event in a 1:13.74.
- Wilkowski (29.44) and Czech Republic’s Sandra Kazikova (34.04) became the first world record holders in the men’s and women’s 50-meter backstroke events respectively.
- Wilkowski was not done yet, as he also took the world record in the inaugural men’s 100-meter individual medley in a time of 1:04.17.
- Polish swimmer Pawel Bednarczyk was the winner of the first-ever men’s 100-meter freestyle race contested, swimming a world record time of 58.08.
- Poland’s Filip Koloziesjki won the men’s 50-meter butterfly in a time of 28.29.
- Poland’s team of Muszynski, Karolina Szalast, Bednarkcyzk, and Szarpak won the 4×250 mixed freestyle relay in a time of 11:41.22.
- “WILD ASTORIA”, the team of Polish swimmers Bartosz Ciezki, Ola Dudek, Jakub Muszyski, and Miezko Palmi-Kukieko and “team Poland” consisting of Perl, Szalast, Sawomir Wilkowski, and Micha Jagiego tied for first in the mixed 4×50 freestyle relay with a time of 1:54.52.
The IISA was founded in 2009 with the hopes of putting ice swimming in the Winter Olympics and hosts many other competitions such as the ice mile and the IISA World Cup series.
All race videos from this year’s world championships can be found on the IISA YouTube Channel.