ICE BREAKER
Taranaki teen headed to Italy for world ice swimming champs
AStratford teenager is a world record breaker. Madeline Hobo, 16, smashed the 500m freestyle ice swimming record for junior swimmers on July 11, while competing in the International Ice Swimming Association (IILSA) NZ and Southern Hemisphere Pool Championships.
The record, previously held by then-17-year-old Nikola Kopecka, of the Czech Republic, who swam the 500m in a water temperature of 3.8C and an air temperature of 6C with a time of 7m 49s..
Stratford-based Hobo not only beat Kopecka’s time by an impressive 34.1s, but she did so in notably lower temperatures, with the water temperature officially recorded as 2.26C and the air at an icy -3C.
“I couldn’t feel my feet for a long time after the swim. It took about three hours for my feet to fully heat up again.”
Breaking Kopecka’s record not only gives Hobo well-deserved bragging rights and the top spot in the IILSA world rankings for the event, but has helped her earn a spot representing Aotearoa New Zealand at the International Ice Swimming Association world championships in Molveno, Italy, in January.
With the world champs under six months away, Hobo is now facing a packed training schedule and an equally packed fundraising one.
“I’m super-stoked that the first time I get to travel internationally is for sport and with my team. It has always been a goal of mine to represent NZ, I didn’t think I’d be able to do it at 16. My biggest concern is being able to raise enough funds to cover costs.”
She’s started a Givealittle page as well as a Facebook page — Mad Hobo Ice Swimmer — for people to follow her progress.
Ice swimming was called an extreme sport for a reason, she said.
“Before you enter an event, you need to have a medical from your doctor, including an ECG showing your heart is okay. There’s a risk of a heart attack with ice swimming.”
For ice swimming, swimmers wear only a swimsuit, goggles and a cap. They also wore a belt, said Hobo.
“That’s because you may need to be pulled out of the water quickly if you aren’t coping. The belt makes it easier for someone to grab you.”
If you did complete the swim, getting out yourself was part of the challenge, she said.
“You can’t feel your limbs, you are wobbly. You need to get to the first aid area to safely warm up.”
After she completed the 500m freestyle in record time, Hobo remembers telling her mum, Lorna, she wasn’t done yet.
“Mum was saying well done, you’ve smashed it, and I was saying, no not yet. I still need to warm up and be okay before I can say I have done it.”
What makes Hobo’s achievement all the more remarkable is that she took up the sport only this year. She first dipped a proverbial and literal toe into cold water to see if she wanted to take the sport up on April 3. That was exactly 99 days before she broke a world record in the extreme sport.
That first toe dip was in Stratford’s Pātea River.
The water would have been about 10C that evening, she said.
“It felt cold at the time, but now that doesn’t sound so cold to me anymore.”
Hobo had spent time that evening on a call with Kiwi ocean swimmer Caitlin O’reilly, who also had taken up ice swimming when she was about Hobo’s age.
“Talking to her got me really excited, I went from being curious about ice swimming to being sure I wanted to try it out. By the time the call finished the sun was setting, but I was so keen to have a go, mum and I headed out to the scout den in Stratford to the river.”
Getting into that cold water the first time taught the New Plymouth Girls’ High School Year 12 student two things, she said.
“As soon as I got in I thought, this is going to be a lot harder than I thought. I got brain freeze in the first 100m. But also, I realised this was something I could do, and the challenge could be fun.”
The extreme sport had first been mentioned to Hobo in January in Auckland.
She was in Auckland for an ocean swim event and was on the ferry heading to the start line.
“Susan Sherwen mentioned it to me.”
Sherwen is the organiser of the IILSA NZ and Southern Hemisphere Pool Championships and approached Hobo because she saw she wasn’t wearing a wetsuit for the ocean swim.
“She said swimming without a wetsuit was half the challenge in ice swimming.”
Hobo had discovered her aptitude for swimming without a wetsuit that month in Taupo.
A keen swimmer for years, she was swimming for The Flyers and Swimming Taranaki in the 10km marathon distance swim in Taupo, coming fourth in the 15-17 age group. She remembers watching as other swimmers in her race were getting out the water shivering with cold, while she felt she could easily go back in and swim another 5km.
After her conversation with Sherwen on the ferry, Hobo began considering ice swimming.
“I started bugging mum to let me try it. Eventually, she agreed.”
With water in Taranaki notably warmer than the 5C that ice swimming requires, Hobo needed to find a way to train her body to cope with the temperatures.
“Mum asked on Facebook if anyone was selling an old chest freezer that we could use for me to plunge in. Jocelyn Gallop generously gave us one, so we set that up and I would sit in it for as long as possible.”
A few ice swimming training camps in Taupo had also helped in the lead-up to the July championships, said Hobo’s mum, Lorna Hobo.
“It’s certainly a lot easier, access-wise, for the South Island competitors. They have incredible cold-water opportunities. Plenty of clean lakes, rivers and outdoor pools with chilly temps to train in.”
Despite the warmer temperatures in Taranaki and having only 99 days to train in, Hobo shone at the July champs.
As well as breaking the world record in her age group for the 500m, she was first in the 100m breaststroke, secondnd in the 100m freestyle, second in in the 250m freestyle, and second in the 200m individual medley, each in her agegroup category.
As for the upcoming world championships, she hopes to achieve more records.
“My goal is to hopefully retain my U18 world record as well as further improve my 500m time.”
"I couldn’t feel my feet for a long time after the swim. It took about three hours for my feet to fully heat up again." Madeline Hobo