These stories sound like a day at the office for Dagny Knutson but when these swimmers swam when fabric and heating technology really sucked.Scott, The Canuck Swimmer: Well, I swam in Edmonton, Alberta which, as it shares the same latitude with Moscow, gets chilly in the winter. After practice on a cold day (around -20C or -4F) you'd keep your tuque off; [knitted cap], for about a minute and then you would be able to scrub the ice out with your fingers and brush it for a nice dry head of hair. Caution: if you try doing that with long hair you're risking having some break off in your hands :(
P.S. Some related trivia. Last year a girl from the Yukon, Alexandra Gabor made Canada's national swim team (first swimmer ever from the three territories). Up there it is considered unusually cold only when it dips close to -40, the temperature where Fahrenheit and Celsius cross paths. At that temperature the cold starts becoming physically painful. I shiver at the thought of just getting into a frozen car in order to get to practice, much less coming out into what would be veritable deep freeze afterwards.
[Scott, the temperature becomes physically painful at 40-degrees, not 40-below. You can die in 40-degree weather; you can become a crystallized fossil at 40-below.]
Screaming Viking: When I was a senior in high school our Senior Champs were at the University pool in Fairbanks in March. The building heaters were not working. The room was about 40 degrees. The water was in the 70's. We were all wearing parkas, rubber boots and stocking caps behind the blocks until the last second when we stripped down to our paper suits before our races.
Swam a couple of big best times there. Great memories.
[MY GOSH, It sounds like you swam for Santa Claus High and you had elves for coaches.]
Ted Baker: Trying swimming in Edmonton or Saskatoon... Or Winnipeg. I remember a meet at the University of Alberta, back when the blocks (Metal) were by this big picture window at the end of the pool: The blocks got so cold that it felt like your feet stuck to them!
We used to finish work-out, go outside and our hair would freeze.
[That is a horrific description. I am envisioning "slices of bacon" left behind on the blocks after every dive.]
3 comments:
"Scott, the temperature becomes physically painful at 40-degrees, not 40-below. You can die in 40-degree weather; you can become a crystallized fossil at 40-below."
But at 40 above you die a lot, lot slower. [wink] And thanks for the edit - I probably should have figured out people who haven't had the privilege to experience the bracing cold of winter may not be familiar with what a "tuque" is. In Canada it's an article of clothing as common as boots, coat and the admonishment "don't touch metal without your gloves!".
By the way, coldest weather I've ever experienced was in Baker Lake, Northwest Territories, where it hit -50 celsius with winds gusting up to 60 kph (a wind chill equivalent of -78 celsius or -108.4 fahrenheit). Even the Inuit don't go out in that weather. I, on the other hand, was bored out of my mind (the hotel was running a Pippi Longstocking movie on a loop) so I ventured out the necessary two blocks to the office where I was working. It was so cold that, after taking off my parka and sitting down, I discovered a frozen dime-sized patch on each of my cheeks, something that allowed me to amuse myself by tapping them with a couple of pencils until they thawed. All despite closing my parka's wolf hair cowl as much as possible and keeping my head down and away from the wind, only occasionally taking quick peeks to reestablish my direction. It took just those few seconds scanning the horizon to do the damage. Moral of the story: always listen to an Inuit if he tells you it's too cold to go outside!
alain bernard at training camp this winter
http://www.france24.com/fr/20100109-me-pas-froid
There are still outdoor pools in Saskatoon? I'm moving there in a couple of weeks and all of the serious pools that I've looked up are heated and indoors.
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