Part One: Breaking the Ice
You’ve probably heard of cold plunging and you might have even seen people swimming in cold water, but did you know you can race in it? Elizabeth Culcay is an age group world record holder and world champion ice swimmer. For ice swimmers, it’s all about going as fast as possible in icy-cold temperatures in just a standard swimsuit, cap, and goggles.But as Culcay discovered, ice swimming is about turning fear into an opportunity.
What is Ice Swimming?
Ice swimming is an extreme version of pool racing in water 5C (41F) or below. The sport started officially in 2009 when the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) was formed and implemented standardized rules and safety regulations. Just like traditional pool racing, swimmers can compete in set distances from 50 m to 1000 m in all four strokes as well as the ice mile and other special events. Competitions are hosted all across the globe and there is a world cup series that culminates with a world championship every two years.
Crossing Fear
Culcay’s interest in ice swimming started in 2023 somewhere between England and France. In the midst of crossing the English Channel, Culcay had to stop swimming for a commercial ship and then a migrant boat to pass. Floating idle in the 14C water for 45 min, Culcay’s body temperature dropped.
“It was horrible. I trained everything–my mindset, the hours of swimming–everything. I trained absolutely everything but I missed the cold. I thought if I kept a pace, I would be warm, and that’s what I trained for. But I just didn't factor in that somebody would stop me and I wouldn’t be doing anything for 45 minutes.”
“You start feeling like all these things and I just couldn't master it. I couldn't. When I completed The Channel, of course it was a sense of reward but, for me, there was one thing I didn't enjoy, which I would have loved to enjoy, and it was not mastering the cold. So, I said my next challenge needs to be something in these crazy temperatures.”
Conviction
Culcay’s return to swimming took her by surprise. Growing up in Ecuador, Culcay swam competitively in high school but hadn’t thought much about the sport since moving to the UK for her career. Then, while hiking the Cliffs of Dover with her brother, she spotted people swimming.
“It was October! So for me, it was crazy,” she laughs.
When her brother added that people actually swam all the way to France, across the English Channel, Culcay was stunned. As they continued their walk, passing plaques that honoured athletes who had swam the English Channel, an intense feeling bubbled up in Culcay: “I want to do this.”
“My brother said: ‘yeah, right.’ I said, no, I will do it. That was my purpose. It was a really crazy dream but that’s how I decided. Everybody looked at me, my husband looked at me, with a very concerned face–but here we are.”
Follow the Fear
After completing the English Channel, Culcay followed her fears into cold water. With the help of Google, she found the IISA, competitions, and the qualifying standards to compete. She found other swimmers, started training the speed and her target distances in the pool five days a week, and then she began acclimating to the icy temperatures on the weekends.
Culcay started with simple ice baths at home and then ventured to a local lake in the midst of the British autumn. The water was a bone-chilling 9C (48F) and it tested Culcay right from the start.
“I couldn’t put my face in. If you ever try in those temperatures to put your face in straight away, you get the shock.”
With her husband watching from the shore for safety, newly versed in the signs and symptoms of hypothermia, Culcay took it step by step. She started with short immersions, then floating, putting her face in, controlling her breathing, and, finally, full stroke swimming.
“ At the beginning, it was very difficult to get the body to swim because when you get in, your body feels like…like, your core forgets how to be a core. You start shaking, you forget how to breathe, it is horrible.”
Even when she started to swim full freestyle, Culcay initially kept her head above the water, having to ease into swimming with her face in.
“In the world championships, you go straight into the water. You cannot leave with your head out or anything like that. You need to be able to control the shock in the body, the breathing, and, above all, get into the water without panicking. So, those were the few things that I had to master throughout. But I did it step by step. I couldn't do it all in one go.”
From Adversary to World Champion
After months of training, in January 2025, Culcay headed to Molveno, Italy with over 700 other swimmers from 45 countries to compete at the Ice Swimming World Championships. With her husband, her coach who flew in from Ecuador, and her brother for support, Culcay was ready to prove she had mastered the cold.
Culcay raced the 50 m and 100 m butterfly, the 250 m freestyle, and, her primary focus, the 1 km freestyle.
“I chose the 1 km race, knowing it wasn’t just about this moment but about everything it represents for the future. The cold, the time, the recovery. It was all a challenge but a process I truly loved mastering,” Culcay wrote on social media.
With ice floating in the pool each morning and water temperatures ranging between 0.8-1.9C (33-35 F), Culcay clocked 14:52 in the 1 km freestyle to take the world championship title. She backed that up by earning the silver medal in the 50 m fly, taking the gold in the 250 m freestyle, and setting an age group world record in the 100 m fly.
From miserably bobbing in the English Channel to celebrating on the top of the podium as a world champion, Culcay had transformed the cold from adversary to opportunity.
“Having the resilience to learn [from the cold] and make it an opportunity rather than a challenge became a very beautiful experience. A lot of it was that I didn’t want fear to be an obstacle for me.”
“The sense of accomplishment and what you feel after–that rush–it’s the most individual and accelerating thing.”
“Who needs a comfort zone when you’ve got a cold one?”
