A remarkable achievement unfolded in the Arctic waters of Svalbard this week as 15-year-old British ice swimmer Frankie Jackson completed a 1-kilometer polar swim at Bore Glacier, Svalbard, in temperatures well below freezing. Frankie, from Northumberland, has already established herself as one of the UK’s rising talents in ice swimming. Representing Great Britain through the International Ice Swimming Association, she previously competed at the GB Championships in Scotland and alongside her teammates at the European Championships in Molveno, Italy earlier this year.
On Wednesday, 6 May, Frankie joined six fellow swimmers aboard an expedition vessel in Svalbard before heading to the beautiful large glacial front of Bore Glacier for one of the most challenging swims of her young career. The water temperature was recorded at an astonishing -0.63°C before Frankie entered the Arctic water at 18:36 wearing only a standard swimsuit, a swimming cap and goggles. Battling both the cold and the demanding polar conditions, she completed the full 1-kilometer swim in an extraordinary time of 16 minutes and 53 seconds. For experienced ice swimmers, such a performance would already be considered exceptional. For a 15-year-old athlete in one of the harshest swimming environments on Earth, it left the crew, safety team and fellow swimmers stunned. She is now believed to be among the youngest, and possibly the youngest, swimmer ever to complete a polar 1-kilometer swim under such conditions that far north.
This year’s ice swimming program in Svalbard consisted of two separate week-long camps organized by UK-based open water event company Swim Your Swim, which has been arranging and observing polar swimming expeditions in Svalbard for the past three years. The team was supported by event medic Ben Watts (WEM), lifeguards Ray Smith and Alison Howard, and local Arctic guide Company Svalbard Photography AS.
Marcel Schütz, PolarJournal