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Local swimmer wins 2 events at inaugural US winter championships

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Competitive swimmer and coach Mark Johnston left Montana to swim in the first open-water winter swim sanctioned in America, and returned home a national champion.

“I am really happy with how I did,” Johnston said. “I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t done anything like this before.”

The 54-year-old Polson resident raced in four events, wearing only Speedos; wetsuits were not allowed. Johnston finished first in the 25-meter freestyle (15.1), first in the 50-meter freestyle (31.99), second in the 25-meter breaststroke (18.59) and third in the 100-meter freestyle (1:18.46).

The US Winter Swimming Championship was held Feb. 21 in Lake Memphremagog in Newport, Vermont. Two 25-meter lanes were cut through the frozen lake, scattering blocks of ice two feet thick around the swimming hole.

The high on Saturday warmed up to a balmy 9 degrees. With 20 mph winds, the air temp felt like 20 degrees below zero. 

Yet Johnston said the cold wasn’t a factor.

“The weirdest thing for me,” Johnston said, “was once I took my robe off to swim, my competitive juices warmed me up. I frankly didn’t notice the cold — until I got out. Race mode just kind of kicked in.”

Sanctioned races in northern parts of England and Sweden draw 600-800 competitors. Because this was the inaugural on U.S. waters, only 40 brave swimmers came to compete, and only about half of those who entered were truly competitive, Johnston explained. 

“You’ve got to show up to win anything. There may be better swimmers, but they weren’t there,” Johnston said with a laugh.

Those who did compete came from eight different countries, flying their homeland’s flag in the ice lining the pool.

Johnston was honored to swim under the Flathead Nation flag, presented by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ tribal council a week before he left.

“They said ‘we are honored that you are formally asking us. It’s nice when someone pays us the respect to ask permission.’ One of the gals in the tribal council took the flag home for a ceremonial smudging, then gave me a piece of the braided sweetgrass used in the smudging ceremony,” Johnston said.

Johnston shared the beauty of Polson, Flathead Lake, and the reservation at a banquet following the winter swim competition. “There was a lot of opportunity to talk about the lake. Rob McDonald gave me pins, scarves, and trinkets to hand out to people,” Johnston said, much like athletes do in the Olympics. 

“In theory, we could do something like this (on Flathead Lake),” Johnston said. 

He’s fostering relationships with people he met from New York, Boston and San Francisco — swimmers who meet every Sunday to swim in cold water, year round.

About half of the serious competitors at the event had swum an ice mile. That’s serious stuff, Johnston said. He’s considered training to complete the 30-minute mile, yet hearing stories from those who’ve done it made him think twice.

One woman told him that when she finished her mile, she was taken to the emergency room and to this day has no recollection of the race whatsoever. Another miler told him she felt if she had stayed in the cold water another minute, she literally would have died; her body was simply shutting down.

“So that scared me,” he said.

Yet spending time with others who share the craziness of swimming in ice water was unifying.

“We have diverse backgrounds but this one thing in common: You don’t dabble. You have to be kind of be a nut and just do it,” Johnston said. “That’s the common denominator with folks who wouldn’t otherwise know each other.”

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