'I'm just some daft bloke', says GB ice swimmer

A Team GB ice swimmer who became the first British man to complete a gruelling 0.6-mile (1km) swim in the Baltic Sea, with a water temperature of -0.3C, has described himself as "just some daft bloke from Coventry, it's mad".

Neil Curtis, 59, from Kenilworth, completed The Baltic Beast in January at Gdynia in Poland, after setting British Ice swimming age-records in the three different distances at the European Championships in 2024.

He turned to swimming in freezing temperatures after taking up open water swimming in 2016.

"I sat watching telly and saw some guys swimming from Alcatraz to San Francisco and I thought that looks fun and booked. I hadn't swum for 40 years."

Ice swimming takes place outside in conditions that are just below freezing.

"They get a chainsaw and cut the pool out and get a JCB and get the ice out and say, there's your pool," Curtis said.

Curtis' swap to ice swimming came through his open water coach, who told him they would be training through the winter and he would have to take his wet suit off.

After training, he entered the British National Championships and by his own admission, did badly.

"I'd set the wrong expectation," he said. "The expectation I set was: I'm going to do really, really well. It should have been: I'll finish."

He then started to enter other competitions in his age group and after winning a race, he was called up by the British team for the World Championships.

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