Record participation in ice swimming in Obertraun

66 frost-proof starters from five nations took part in the 4th Ice-Swimming at Lake Hallstatt on Saturday and Sunday. Organizer Bernhard Höll was no less happy about this record number of participants than he was about the picture-postcard weather.

The small but growing ice swimming scene has been through a rough patch. Because of the pandemic, only seven competitions could be held in the last two years, including two in Austria.

Also at the start was Josef Köberl, the President of the Austrian Ice Swimmers from Grundlsee and multiple world record holder. Last year, the extreme athlete spent 38 minutes and 32 seconds in a crevasse on the Hintertux Glacier and swam 1,511 meters at a water temperature of minus 0.23 degrees. From this point of view, the water of Lake Hallstatt was pleasant at the weekend with 4.5 degrees.

Ice swimming is finding more and more fans in the Salzkammergut. “It has become a hobby for me,” says Alexandra Mieila from Obertraun, for example. “It’s good for me, I feel physically good about it.”