Open water swimmer Mayra Santos said today that she is prepared for the “great challenge” of being Portugal’s first representative at the Ice Swimming World Championships, between 12 and 18 August, in Argentina.
The Portuguese-Brazilian swimmer, who has lived on the island of Madeira for 20 years, will embark on Friday for the region of El Calafate, in Patagonia, in the extreme south of Argentina, where she will swim short distances, but with the main obstacle being the icy waters.
Mayra Santos will compete in the 25, 50, 100 and 200 meters, which will take place on an “ice platform”, the 44-year-old swimmer explained to Lusa news agency, who will also participate in the 500 and 1,000 meter events, in very low temperatures.
“It wasn’t in my plans to participate in these types of shorter races,” explained the open water ultramarathon runner, who has never seen “real snow”, before going on to say that her training methods consist of alternating between ice and pool training, with the aim of keeping her “heart rate up”.
The preparation work consists of “immersion” in ice-cold water, as in Madeira “there is no extreme cold”, except “when ice falls on the ground”, which is why I have acquired a specific “fridge” to simulate the conditions that you will find in the Patagonia region.
“I didn’t have anyone’s support”, lamented Mayra Santos, who only in the last few weeks made the decision to participate in the ice competition, which forced her to bear the “extremely high costs of the trip”, despite having sold some merchandising items in the last few days, but which “weren’t enough”.
On July 30th, Mayra Santos was the first to swim between Madeira and the island of Deserta Grande, on a round trip of around 60 kilometers, in around 20 hours.
This was followed by just two days of recovery training to overcome the “muscle injuries” resulting from this crossing.
The swimmer admitted that she did not have high expectations for the results, as she was the first Portuguese swimmer in this competition, with Chilean cold water swimmer Barbara Hernández being the “great inspiration”, as she is a great friend and an ambassador for the event.
The Ice Swimming World Championships are a competition organized by the International Ice Swimming Federation, and are led by Argentine Matias Ola, an open water ultramarathon runner.
Mayra Santos has other remarkable moments, namely in 2019, when she completed the crossing between Porto Santo and Madeira, covering 42 kilometers, in 12:07 hours, and in 2021 she became the first woman to descend the Zêzere River, covering a distance of 45 kilometers, in around 15 hours.
More recently, in 2022, she successfully completed a double lap around Manhattan, in the United States, covering 100 kilometers, in approximately 20 hours, four hours less than expected, and also completed a swim around Porto Santo, in December 2023, covering 32 kilometers, in 11:19.52 hours.