“Kate Steels of GB Dives into the Ice Swimming World Championships!”

“My heart shattered into countless fragments,” Kate Steels expressed to Olympics.com on 9 January 2025, while attempting – impossibly – to articulate her emotions upon discovering that her son had taken his own life just two days after commencing university in 2018. “There will never be a day that you erase from memory, but somehow I’ve got to keep moving forward, otherwise what’s the purpose of my existence, if that makes sense? So swimming is vital to that, especially ice swimming. That’s where I find tranquility, when I’m submerged in water.”

Sitting in front of a map showcasing her swim across the English Channel in 2016, an early milestone in her swimming career that began at 39 following her marriage breakdown, the 55-year-old was conversing with Olympics.com through video link a week prior to her participation in the sixth edition of the International Ice Swimming World Championships set to occur in Molveno, Italy from 13-19 January 2025.

Steels has participated in four editions, including being one of two Britons present at the inaugural event in Murmansk, Russia in 2015, the other being her partner Rory Fitzgerald. This time, 46 British athletes constitute a segment of the 752 swimmers enrolled from across the globe competing in the week-long event, which features all strokes in the 50m, 100m, 250m, and the flagship, 1,000m distances.

The current 1,000m female world record belongs to Alisa Fatum–Boker from Germany (12 minutes 41 seconds), while the male world record is held by Andreas Washburger, also from Germany (11 minutes 24 seconds).

At the World Championships in 2017, Bulgarian Petar Stoychev earned the men’s world champion title, establishing what was then a new world record (12 minutes 15 seconds). Stoychev, a four-time Olympian, is now the vice chair of IISA and is leading the efforts, alongside chair Ram Barkai, to include ice swimming as a sport in the Olympic Winter Games.

Also competing in Italy is Paris 2024 swimmer, Keaton Jones, who placed fifth in the men’s 200m backstroke. This is not his initial experience; the American participated in the 2023 ice swimming world championships in Samoens, France, where he secured five gold medals and set five world records.

Steels, who has played a key role in promoting the sport in her capacity as secretary at IISA and previously as head of GB Ice, will compete in four distances in her age category and will defend her unexpected age-group sprint title in the 100m from the previous competition.

“I’m not a sprinter but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” she remarks. Her primary goal is to achieve personal bests, particularly in her favored 1000m distance, which she completed in 16:33.80 at the last World Championships.

“If I manage to reach the podium, that would be an added bonus, but there’s significant competition now, which is actually quite beneficial for the sport.”

Regarding the presence of an Olympian, Steels comments: “Keaton Jones participated at Samoens, obtained some world records, qualified for the Paris Olympics, and now he’s returning. I mean, that’s absolutely fantastic, that’s truly remarkable. We’re drawing in some exceptionally talented individuals; the times across all events are decreasing. I believe in one of my events I have about 26 competitors in my age group, and they come from competitive backgrounds, which is exactly the direction we want the sport to take.”