Annual review 2024

By Jörg Hoffmann, board member and host

The winter swimming year began with the New Year's swim, which I was unable to take part in as I was in the Sinai desert at the turn of the year. The start of my own 2024 season was the swim on 9 January 2024 with Gerda and the wonderful group who swam through winter.

Participation in the Winter Swimming World Championships in Tallinn

The idea of taking part in the Winter Swimming World Championships in Tallinn took root back in January and I quickly decided that I wanted to be part of it. Soon we were a group of eight swimmers and Sophia as a supporter. The preparations were varied. In addition to the organisational aspects, we trained together. First of all, the distances we wanted to swim: 25/50/100 metres in cold water. How far is that? We marked it out together at Ufschötti and swam it. Then the temperature, which would be around 0 degrees in Tallinn. How does that feel? We had an invitation from Solarctic Zen, a manufacturer of ice baths, and four of us travelled there and bathed in water that was 2 degrees cold. It was pretty cold, but it went surprisingly well. Afterwards we went to Seelisbergsee and swam our competition distance for time at 2.5 degrees. That was very exciting and warming up together in the restaurant was a welcome opportunity to get back up to temperature.

Training Ufschötti WS World Championships Tallinn 2024

Training WS World Championship Tallinn in Seelisberg

Trial training in Tallinn

Before the start for 50 m freestyle in Tallinn

On 6 March, we flew from Zurich to Tallinn in the morning and all checked in together at the hotel and for the event. We were surprised at how many winter swimmers from all over the world were there, as well as friends from Switzerland and Austria. The greetings took a while and then we wanted to take a look at the venue. The pool was open and we spontaneously decided to do a first short training session to acclimatise ourselves. So we put on our swimming costumes and swam a lap at 0.6 degrees and then went to the sauna afterwards.

The days were intense and, in addition to the competitions, we also had time to get an impression of Tallinn and even just dive into the sea. We all took part in the world record and together with 840 other winter swimmers we broke the record for the largest ice swimming relay. On the last evening there were the award ceremonies and then the big final ball, where we even won a dryrobe in the raffle.

Open water swimming training with Margarethe and Pavel from swim-arts.com

Winter swimming continued into the summer and we organised swimming training at the same time. After the competition, we wanted to improve our swimming technique. Gerda hired a swimming coach in Basel and together a group of swimmers travelled there to be coached personally. Later, the Basel swimmers even came to Lucerne and we had a great training session in the lake, where we learnt how to orientate ourselves well in the lake and what long-distance swimmers should pay attention to during training.

Lake crossings

A number of lake crossings were scheduled for August and many winter swimmers wanted to take part. So we organised training sessions for that too.

Why found an association?

After the summer break, swimming starts again in September. We are slowly swimming our way towards winter and the number of participants is rising sharply this year. For the first time, we regularly have between 30 and 40 participants on Tuesdays and sometimes more than 30 people come to the swims on Fridays too. As a result, the preparations for the foundation of the association, which have been ongoing since the beginning of the year, are being driven forward in the background. We want to distribute the work more evenly among more people and also improve the safety situation for the hosts. For me as a host, this means that I am completing the SLRG Basic Pool qualification so that I am better informed about rescue in the water. The safety of participants is a focus topic in the autumn. Safety plans are drawn up for the locations and material is procured and recommended to the participants to make swimming safer.

Founding an association is fun

New beginnings in the kitchen

In autumn, the biggest catastrophe in the history of our swimming group takes its course. Corinne, our much-loved and valued winter swimming chef, returns to America. She leaves behind a big gap, both in human and culinary terms, that is not easy to fill again. Fortunately, with the help of the LiLi Centre, we managed to solve the problem of the missing cook and Sinmei took over the kitchen seamlessly from the beginning of November. What a lucky coincidence, which now provides us with the finest Asian cuisine on Tuesdays and delicious soups on Fridays.

Further highlights

Two other highlights in autumn/early winter were the first winter swimmers' weekend organised by Kältenetzwerk in Brunnen, where Yvonne organised the Tell-Schwimmen and Gerda guided a cold hike. The event also attracted some of our swimmers and hosts to Brunnen and received considerable media coverage. And last but not least, the annual Samichlaus Swim in Merlischachen took place again this year.

The swimming continues as the water temperatures drop and weather conditions get harsher, but the work in the background in the association is also in full swing. We are very pleased that we have already gained around 40 members since the beginning of January 2025.

Best wishes and see you soon
Jörg