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Winter Swimming is the activity of swimming during the winter season, typically in outdoor locations (Open water swimming), or in unheated pools or lidos. Many winter swimmers swim with standard swimming costumes rather than with wetsuits or other thermal protection.

In colder countries winter swimming may be synonymous with Ice swimming.

Ice Swimming

Ice swimming is swimming in a body of water with a frozen crust of ice, which requires cutting a hole in the ice. This may also be simulated by a pool of water at 0 °C, the temperature at which water freezes. Ice swimming is possible because the freezing of water releases heat, so that the water does not refreeze instantly.

Winter swimming is swimming in a body of water during winter. This may or may not involve freezing water, depending on the geographical location and the time of year.

Ice swimmers do not dive beyond dipping their heads below the surface while treading water: moving under the edge of the ice is enormously dangerous. Otherwise it is not different from ordinary swimming.

In Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia the ice swimming tradition has been connected with the sauna tradition.

In Harbin, northern China, many ice swim in the Songhua River. It has grown in popularity since late 1940 as a winter ritual and now as an estimated 200,000 registered swimmers. The river hole is estimated to be 25m by 10m.

There are strong traditions for ice swimming and dousing with cold water in Russia. They are done for health benefits, as a ritual of the Orthodox Church for the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, and for sports. Such club members are called “walruses” (Russian: моржи) instead of “polar bears”.

The members of Canadian and American “polar bear clubs” go outdoor bathing or swimming in the middle of winter. In some areas it is unusual or ceremonial enough to attract press coverage. “Polar Plunges” or “Polar Bear Plunges” are conducted as fund-raisers for charity, notably the Special Olympics. Cosmo Kramer briefly joins a New York polar bears club in the sitcom Seinfeld.

The oldest ice swimming club in the United States is the L Street Brownies of South Boston, Massachusetts, who hold their annual polar plunge on New Year’s Day.