Swim the Arctic Circle

That's right, there is an open water swimming event that crosses the Arctic Circle. To make it even more exciting, the swim goes from Finland to Sweden and starts at midnight under the midnight sun!

Open water swimming event - Swim the Arctic Circle (swimac.eu)

Swim the Arctic Circle takes place on the Tornio River (Torne Älv) that separates Finland from Sweden. Start is in Finland 5 minutes past midnight, and finish is in Sweden, 3 km downstream in the village of Jouksengi. For the slightly less adventurous, there is a 2km event as well that occurs on the Swedish side during the day.

Year 2019, I did the 2km event, at the time, I was unsure if I could handle crossing the river which has a strong current. It was cold, about 60f (16C) in 2019, or even slightly colder, but the 2km went fine and I decided to come back and do the real thing next time! Well, Covid made me wait until 2022 as border crossings were almost impossible with all the restrictions and the organizers were forced to cancel. 

Competition day this year (July 16) was forecasted to be cold and rainy, I was joking about swimming in the midnight downpour, but miraculously, the rain passed further north. The whole day was warm and sunny, the night was almost cloud free. A previous heat wave had warmed the waters to a balmy 68f (20C), which is almost unheard of in this Arctic area. Perfect conditions!

A bus took the participants from the Swedish finish area to the start in Finland. Air temperature at start was about 55f (13C) but we did not have to get changed until shortly before start and with wetsuit, it was not cold except for my feet. I opted to warm up in the water beforehand and all felt good. I swam as hard as I could, even though I did not care for placement, most of us were there for the experience. For safety reasons, only 130 swimmers are allowed in the event, and they came from all over the world, even Australia, USA, Japan, and many European countries. When signing up opened in January, it took three minutes to fill all the slots. 

The current made for a fast swim, my fastest ever. Compare 39 minutes to the 67 minutes I had on the same distance one week earlier! There was only one class for all ages and I ended up in about the middle of the field. I did not feel cold at all, the biggest problem was to not get carried outside the buoys by the current.

At finish waited sauna and hot tubs and hot showers. Because of time difference between Sweden and Finland, and I had under an hour, I arrived before I had started...

The night was beautiful in the midnight sun glow. To make it even more special, my ancestry is in the area, I have cousins and distant relations in many villages. My grandparents would probably have thought we were crazy to swim over the river.

I hope to be back. If I can get a slot.