Part Two: Training for the Ice Swimming World Championship

Diving into Elizabeth Culcay’s world means swimming in water temperatures below 5C (41F). If that doesn’t send a chill down your spine, Culcay doesn’t just swim in cold water, she races in it–even butterfly. The age group world champion and world record holder ice swimmer wasn’t always a queen of the cold but when it became an obstacle, Culcay decided the only way to conquer it was to jump in.

Is Ice Swimming a Sport?

Just like traditional pool racing, ice swimmers compete in set distances from 50 m to 1000 m in all four strokes as well as relays and other open water special events but with one exception: the water must be below 5C (41F). Swimmers are only allowed to compete in normal swimsuits, a cap, and goggles. The sport started officially in 2009 when the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) was formed and implemented standardized rules and safety regulations. There are competitions all across the globe, including a world cup series, and world championship every two years. 

“People see ice swimming competitions and they might think it's easy to do the 100 or the 50s. They underestimate what the cold can do to your body without knowing,” the 35-year-old UK-based Ecuadorian says. She references body shock and how it will start to shake, the difficulty breathing, and how your body feels like it forgets how to swim–and that’s not even the hardest part.

Breaking the Ice

Culcay wasn’t always an ice swimmer. After being inspired to start swimming again as an adult living in the UK, Culcay went from “haven’t swam since high school” to successfully crossing the English Channel. But despite making it to the shores of France, her battle with the cold had left a motivating scar. Resolved to master her new adversary, Culcay discovered ice swimming and with it set the goal to compete at the age group ice swimming world championships. 

Along with her normal pool training, she started taking ice baths at home to acclimate to the shock. Then she incorporated cole water training at a local lake on weekends. From 1-2 minute dips to swimming 1000m, Culcay said she had to take it one step at a time. 

“ I started with immersion. Then learning for the body not to sink, but to float. The third step for me was the breathing, and then putting my face in.”

The Recovery Period

Culcay progressed in the water but, as she learned the hard way, ice swimming wasn’t just about the cold water. The time after exposure, the recovery period, was just as crucial. 

At first, thanks to the temperature difference and adrenaline, Culcay wouldn’t immediately feel the cold and wasn’t in a rush to change her clothes–a classic beginner mistake. 

“But then slowly, once I'm changing, I would start shivering and then I couldn’t use my hands.”

Another learning curve was figuring out the order in which to get dressed. 

“I would not cover my feet until last and then I would think I was getting hypothermia and I couldn’t control it. Then I would start crying and getting desperate.”

Having her husband on shore for safety, the two of them worked out a routine. 

“ I would swim 15-16 minutes, come out, and by that time my husband would have been heating the car with the heat on max. I would go into the car and it would take me around 10 to 15 minutes to warm up.”

The Second Challenge

Logistics and beginner missteps aside, as an accomplished, competitive, and determined swimmer, Culcay’s true challenge was figuring out her psychology. The emotional manifestations of the cold were a whole new experience and, surprisingly, it was the recovery period that proved to be the most difficult. 

“I would be in the car and suddenly I would get the shivers and my body would shake and I would just start crying and I would be like, no, this is horrible. That happened to me the first eight sessions I was doing in the lake.”

“You have to also learn how to control your emotions,” Culcay says. “You need to think, what is happening in your brain.”

But, as Culcay and the IISA figured out, you can’t do that alone. At all ice swimming events, each swimmer is required to have a “second.” The second can only support one swimmer at a time and is responsible to watch them from the changeroom, through the event, and until recovery. Knowing their swimmer, a second can pick up on certain behaviours, alert safety staff if anything appears wrong, and know what to say to help their swimmer during the recovery period. 

“I couldn't control it until my husband–and this is why it's very important to have a secondary person that comes with you and gets you into that control–because, honestly, your brain goes blind. It goes into panic but as long as you have somebody, and I've seen a lot of people have a secondary that gets you back to the reality that nothing is happening, because they identify if you’re hypothermic or not and guide you back to calm.”

Not one to cry in a car over cold feet, Culcay’s husband learned, not only the signs of hypothermia and abnormal signalling behaviours, but exactly what she needs to hear in order to regain control. 

 ”He does know me, how to talk to me…and he knows where to tap. It's very important to have somebody that knows, really knows, how to talk to you.”

Winning Fear

“ I hate the cold. I am South American, born and raised in the sun,” she laughs. 

Whether it was the cold talking or not, Culcay admits she wanted to quit a few times along the way. But there was one thing stopping her: “I didn’t want the fear to be an obstacle, not here, not anytime in my life. I wanted to overcome that.”

“A lot of the process has been resilience and patience. One of the things my husband always tells me is ‘keep showing up.’ To keep showing up, having the resilience to learn from those fears and make it an opportunity rather than a challenge became a very beautiful experience.”

That perspective has helped her outside the water as well. 

“In COVID when I lost my job, I had to change industries because I was in hospitality. That’s when I took on the English Channel and that mindset helped me–the transition to look from the perspective of, okay this is a challenge, let’s use it as an opportunity. Now, I’ve managed to move into tech, which a lot of people did, but for me it was so difficult because I grew up in one industry and change wasn’t easy. Luckily, swimming got me into that perspective shift so it has helped me not only in my personal life but my professional life as well.”

A Queen After a Crown

Within a year of her first cold immersion, Culcay competed at 2025 Ice Swimming World Championship, earning three gold medals and a silver as well as setting an age group world record in the 100 m butterfly. She is most proud, however, of her world title in the 1 km freestyle. 

She beams when she talks about her experience at the ice swimming world championships but she smiles, “I don’t think I’ve mastered it.”

“My next project is to complete The Ice Crown, which is two ice miles [1600m], one in the north and one in the south hemisphere in ice.”

With her world championship title in the 1 km, Culcay is already qualified to make the dual open water attempt and is hoping to complete it this year.

“I needed to choose something that will really break your mind. It’s the crazy challenges that drive me or things that seem impossible.”

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?”