Limerick Narwhals target medals at Ice Swimming World Championships

LIMERICK is being represented at the International Ice Swimming Association’s (IISA) 5th World Championships in the French Alps through members of the Limerick Narwhals.

The event which runs until this Sunday is a swimming competition staged in a 25-metre pool where contestants swim in water where temperatures are below five degrees Celsius.

IISA has Ice Swimmers in 43 countries – and 30 of them are in Limerick.

Formed in 2016, the group of Limerick swimming enthusiasts won big at the IISA last year when they took home a total of 18 medals. For the 5th edition, 12 Limerick ice swimmers are competing in Samoëns Village in the four-day event which began yesterday, Thursday.

Mark Dempsey, from the Limerick Narwhals, remembered a time before the Covid-19 pandemic, when only a couple of them were swimming.

Now, the winter sport is proving to be increasingly popular.

“After Covid, a lot of people were going to the river to get some swimming in, and a lot of people stayed at it. In Limerick, we could have 20 or 30 people swimming on any one day,” Mark Dempsey said.

“We don’t actually have a place to swim at all inside the city, so we have to swim in O’Brien’s Bridge. Even though we’re Limerick, we swim in Clare,” he explained.

Speaking of the team members, the winter swimmer explained: “We have the two youngest members and the two oldest members at the championships. So, we have a 78-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man, and a 21-year-old boy guy, and a 22-year-old girl.”

The competition consists of 50, 100, 250, 500-metre races, as well as freestyle races. According to Mark, the Limerick Narwhals could be racing in around 70 races overall.

Mark is confident about the Narwhals' members prospects: “This year will be a special competition, but we should come home with a couple of medals.”