TWO competitors from South East Cornwall are getting ready to represent Great Britain at the World Ice Swimming championships.

Matthew Holland and Sam Day, both members of Caradon Swimming Club, will travel to Molvenu in Italy in January 2025 along with around 35 other athletes in GB colours.

At 16, Matthew is the youngest to have been selected. He found out he’d made the squad during the last week of his GCSE exams.

The teenager, who lives in Hatt near Saltash and attends Callington Community College, explains how he got involved in the sport.

“My mum is a sea swimmer and so I’ve swum since I was small. After COVID I really enjoyed doing lots of swimming in the pool. I joined the junior squad at Caradon and moved up to the senior and then the senior performance squad.”

With several years of competitive pool swimming now under his belt, Matthew came fourth at the South West championships in his discipline and placed 21st in the country last weekend at the British National 7.5km open water event.

Ice swimming adds an extra dimension to the sport: athletes swim for shorter distances in water that is allowed to be no warmer than five degrees celsius. It was while swimming in rivers last winter that Matthew discovered his body functioned well in the cold.

“I was going into places like Plymbridge River, Kit Hill Quarry or Goldiggings all the time. I noticed that I didn’t really feel any different to when I swam in the sea in the summer.

“But it’s still a long process of getting acclimatised. When you start an ice swim you only get a few seconds in the water before you start the race. In the summer I keep up my sea swimming and I have cold baths and showers. I use the Halogi ice bath at the Royal William Yard once a week.”

After a recent holiday in Greece and Corfu, Matthew could well be the only person ever to have said: “I was glad to get back home to Cornwall to get in the cold sea!”