– When the body can’t do anything but keep alive. Brain activity does not retain memory images during recovery. Afterwards, it feels powerful and scary, he described Elina Mäkinen recovering from an amazing performance.
Mäkinen, 29, realized his ultimate dream in the spring of 2022 – he swam a mile (1,610 meters) in Huippuvuori in minus-degree water.
The International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) by (you switch to another service) 25 people in the world have swum the Zero Mile – less than a mile in one-degree water.
No woman has swum in it as cold as Mäkinen.
Excuse me?
“My danger was terrified”
One of Mäkinen’s earliest childhood memories is when he was four years old open-swimming in Vantaa’s Kuusijärvi.
– I think my brother got his toes wet. I was a naughty girl, I jumped in and went swimming. Vaarini was terrified that there was no intention of swimming there.
Mäkinen started his actual open swimming hobby when he moved to Joensuu to study in 2012.
– There was a balance between student trips and everyday life, when you could relax and be in nature.
Open water swimming has grown in popularity enormously in recent years. There is scientific evidence of its health effects.
Suomen Ladu of the survey (you switch to another service) 45 percent of the respondents said that the most important reason for their winter swimming hobby was the positive effects on their mental health.
Also for Mäki, who has a background in competitive swimming, at first it was just about calming down, stopping.
But what Mäkinen has ended up doing after getting excited about winter swimming seems to break the limits of the human body’s capacity. It has also made him a social media star with nearly two million followers.
“Exceptional individual”
Mäkinen swam 25 meters in his first open swimming competition in 2014, but 450 meters later that year in Gdansk, Poland. He has won the world championships in winter swimming.
In an interview at Helsinki’s Marjaniemi winter swimming spot, Mäkinen shivers and smiles “I always get cold”.
Mäkinen is not an exceptional individual in that he does not feel the cold, but he tolerates it exceptionally well.
Professor Hannu Breast hill already described in 2016 For Suomen Kuvalehti (you will switch to another service) Become an exceptional individual who can stretch his performance to the limit.
It is amazing, for example, how Mäkinen is able to maintain his swimming technique and motor performance under such extreme mental and physical stress.
Mäkinen hit the headlines in 2017 when he became the first Finn to swim the ice mile – a mile in water below five degrees.
Today, there are officially two Finns who have swum the ice mile. The latter did it Antti MäkinenElina’s brother.
When Mäkinen swam for the first time in the “kingdom of winter swimmers” in Armagh, Northern Ireland, the water was two degrees. It took 26 minutes and 19 seconds.
– I want to test my limits a bit, but safely. There is no intention to play with his life, says Mäkinen.
However, swimming a mile in water of less than one degree is a significantly different performance than in water of two degrees.
Mäkinen has been in two-degree water for 60 minutes, but the 30-minute performance at Huippuvuori was much more drastic, he says.
How can you practice something like this?
Mäkinen was supposed to travel to Huippuvuori already in 2020, but the event was postponed due to the corona pandemic.
Mäkinen’s preparation and swimming in the Huippuvuorti Polar Ice Mile event was monitored Laura from Denmark directed by Kylmä, which also discussed the dangers and possibilities of cold – such as cooling the brain and heart for heart surgery.
The documentary can be viewed at Areena or at the end of this article.
In the documentary, Mäkinen was subjected to physical and intellectual capacity tests. After that, he stayed in the three-degree water until, at 45 minutes, the researchers suggested stopping. The body temperature had dropped to 35 degrees, almost to hypothermia.
Then the tests were repeated. Mäkinen’s motor abilities and muscle strength had decreased significantly, but his intellectual performance remained surprisingly good.
In cold water, the body cools 2–5 times faster than in air. The ability to function normally deteriorates within a few minutes, but it is affected by age, diseases and fluid balance, among other things.
Mäkinen prepared for Huippuvuori for years. He lived in the north, spent time in cold conditions and went outdoors every day. Simply being in the open cannot be a workout.
– More than that, having a good general condition so that the heart works, stays healthy and can swim. Technology has to keep swimming. Also, not overtraining in the cold. Being cold is a burden on the heart. You can’t do exercises that are too long, because you have to be able to recover from them.
Scary looking start to recovery – a good sign
Specifically recovery. It is the most dramatic footage of Mäkinen’s performances.
Mäkinen swam a mile in Huippuvuori in 31 minutes and 47 seconds. The water temperature was officially -0.77 degrees.
After such a person is in other worlds. Then starts a reckless jerk, muscle tremors. It’s a good sign, the body is starting to warm itself again.
Leading researcher at the Institute of Occupational Health Sirkka Rissanen stated (you switch to another service)that Mäkinen’s body temperature was not measured in Väippuvuori, but it can be concluded from the reactions that it fell below 35.
When the body temperature is below 35 degrees, it is hypothermia, intellectual function is impaired and severe muscle tremors occur. Hypothermia below 30 degrees causes loss of consciousness. The heart and breathing stop when the temperature is below 25 degrees.
After the performance, the body temperature should be raised progressively and calmly. These are the moments that Mäkinen has no memories of afterwards. The body has had more important tasks than the memory functions of the brain.
The test swim had to be cancelled
Professor, University of Portsmouth Mike Tipton said in the documentary that he is no longer afraid of cold shock or hypothermia for Mäkinen.
According to Tipton, Zero Mile could have been ruined by neuromuscular cooling. You can’t get used to it. When the body’s surface nerves and muscles cool down, they stop working.
On the day before the actual event, a test swim in the ulapa was supposed to be organized in the Finnish mountains, but the water temperature was -2 degrees.
– The body contains 60–70 percent water, it freezes at 1.7–2 degrees below zero. This is not about swimming, but about stupidity, stated the organizing organization Ram Barkai in the document.
The test swim was cancelled. The conditions in the open sea were too dangerous, so the actual swimming was moved to the harbor area.
Many participants shortened their journey. Three of the women attempted the mile, only Mäkinen succeeded.
Mäkinen considers the Huippuvuorten Zero Mile his hardest performance.
– You can also see it from the fact that it wasn’t a long recovery, but much tougher than I expected. My memory has stopped and my body has been pretty much at its limits.
Freezing conditions are biting in social media
With the help of social media, Mäkinen could perhaps jump into doing open things full time. He has 1.8 million followers on TikTok. Even one video has a whopping 78.4 million views.
Many of the videos are otherwise typical TikTok pranks, but in the open. They also introduce Lapland in winter, where foreign followers will find something to marvel at.
Mäkinen acknowledges that he receives “hobby income” from social media. He still wants to keep his swimming thing as a joy that balances everyday life.
– I am a tax consultant, I deal with tax matters of business arrangements full-time. I’ve said you have to keep a cool head to do it.
Mäkinen says she shoots TikTok lightly, but she gets help with her Instagram from her husband’s photography company.
What next?
– This swim was the end point for testing my limits, for everything I’ve learned about my body and how far I can take it. Now I have done what I can achieve without playing with my life, concludes Mäkinen in the documentary.
Now in an interview, he laughs that his friends say “sure” if he announces that there are no more goals.
– I don’t compete against anyone else but myself. I try to find the adventurous side of the cold and swimming.
What could that be?
– It would be amazing to get to Greenland to dive under the icebergs.