The Beijing Winter Swimming Association hopes to apply for inclusion into the Winter Olympics beginning in 2022, the organization announced last month.
The Beijing Swimming Association’s annual conference took place on March 15, with officials from the Winter Swimming Association announcing that they would be attempting to get the sport added to the Winter Olympics.
Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, just 14 years after hosting the 2008 Summer Games. It will become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Winter Swimming is swimming outdoors in a winter environment – think open water swimming, but in cold climates, even including ice and snow in nations with colder winters. It’s a relatively major sport in China, with high participation numbers, famous winter swimming sites and at least one annual International Winter Swimming Festival, held each year in Jinan.
The proposal to add winter swimming to the Winter Olympic roster will be officially decided during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Lijin Kang, the chairman of the Beijing Swimming Association said that if the proposal is accepted the local Beijing Winter Swimming Association will join with other winter swimming organizations to create more competitions and events within the sport to “add luster to the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.”
For additional information on ice swimming at the Winter Olympics, read
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2013/09/if-ice-swimming-were-in-olympics-what.html
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2013/09/should-ice-swimming-be-in-olympics-yes.html
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2015/06/making-cut-at-winter-olympics.html
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2013/09/ice-swimming-at-winter-olympics.html
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2014/02/winter-olympics-isdaring-entertaining.html http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2015/06/making-cut-at-winter-olympics.html
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2013/12/open-water-swimmings-presence-at-2014.html
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2015/04/how-fast-are-women-relative-to-men-in.html
The winter swimming community – generally unknown to the competitive pool swimming community – is the hottest (pun intended) discipline in the global open water swimming world. There is a growing World Cup series whose races often draw more than 1,000 competitors and is larger than the FINA Marathon Swimming World Cup Series of the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix series and a world championship that attracts more countries and athletes than the 10K Marathon Swim does at the FINA World Championships. All these athletes – including Petar Stoychev who previously competed in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in 2008 and 2012, perform in water that ranges from 0-5ºC without wetsuits. The rules, regulations and protocols of the sport… Read more »
April Fool a few days later?
https://winterswimming.ru/galereya/video/chempionat-mira-po-zimnemu-plavaniyu-v-tyumeni-russia-winter-swimming-world-championships/
I think it would be great & no wet suits. IMO swimming has taken the elements out of a basic element exposed activity where everyone complains if it rains at a comp. I love a nice indoor pool as much as anyone but to swim in an ocean pool & look out at the dolphins & occasional whale is worth the cold , murk & seaweed .
Besides swimmers could carry a normal weight & not have to be endure those ppl with the fat callipers.
I thought it was April fools joke 2 days late!! Swimming in the winter olympics lol.
LOL got so excited cuz ive wanted sc swimming in the winter for years only to open this article and find out they were talking abt something else lmfao
Maybe adding SC to the Winter Olympics Program would make more sense and seem less self-serving (and safe? how cold is the water?)