U.S. Olympian Keaton Jones Sets 5 World Ice Records at Ice Swimming World Championships

01/27/2025 04:30 PM

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2025 Ice Swimming World Championships

• January 13-19, 2025
• Molveno Olympic Pool, Molveno, Italy
• Long Course Meters (50 meter pool)
• Meet Site/Results

The International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) is making a push for inclusion in the Winter Olympic Games; if they are successful, it would be a boon for 20-year-old American Keaton Jones, who already has one Games under his belt.

Jones missed the Cal Golden Bears’ NCAA meet against USC two weeks ago in order to participate in the event in an outdoor 50-meter pool in Molveno, Italy, best known as a ski resort.

In 2023, Jones became the first American to win gold at the Ice Swimming World Championships, and this year his run of dominance continued with more World Record-setting performances.

“A lot of people in the swimming world do not understand ice swimming,” Jones said in an Instagram post. “For me, it started out as a chance to do something different, travel to a cool place, and maybe get into the record books. This time around, I broke records, I won races and for the first time ever, Americans not only stood on the podium for the distance relay, but the USA stood on the top. I stood on the podium multiple times, but this was by far the sweetest victory of them all. I still have more personal goals in this sport. I’m not sure you can lay claim to being a pure ice swimmer until you tackle a distance event. No American has ever been crowned the Queen or King of the Ice. I have to at least try and see how far I can push myself. But all of these are secondary to why I continue to show up at these events. This community, these athletes, their stories of perseverance, spirit and sheer will, the pervasive desire to challenge oneself and to go against the grain of simply existing and instead live wild and embrace the extraordinary. If this community asks me to come, I will continue to show up, gladly standing shoulder to shoulder with the best people from around the world and I will try to use my small platform to shine a light on this incredible sport. But then I wonder…. should we keep this magic to ourselves?

“Until championship season rolls around again, it will have to suffice that “Take your clothes off” will only haunt my dreams. Until next time, stay cool my fellow ice athletes!”

In 12 men’s individual events on offer at the meet, Jones won medals in five of them, including four golds and a silver.

Jones is a backstroke specialist who finished 5th at the Summer Olympics in the pool in the 200 back. While 200 meter backstroke isn’t on the schedule at the Ice Swimming Championships, Jones swept the 50 meter and 100 meter backstroke events. In the 50, he won in 28.46, which was a tenth ahead of France’s Virgile Deage but a second-and-a-half shy of his World Record. In the 100, he won in a new Ice Swimming World Record of 59.00. His previous ice best was 59.01 done at the 2023 World Championships in Samoens, France.

He also grabbed wins in the 50 free (24.67) and 100 free (53.15), both of which are also new Ice Swimming World Records.

The only individual blemish on his record came in the 50 fly where he was beaten by Poland’s Filip Kolodziejski 27.39-27.99. Kolodziejski is a former national level swimmer in the pool in Poland.

Jones also broke the Ice Swimming World Record in the 100 fly in prelims in 57.18, but didn’t swim the final.

Ice to Not-Ice Times Comparison:

Jones’ sister Ezmee Jones, a high school senior in Arizona, is also an accomplished ice swimmer. She finished 4th in the 250 free in 3:11.72, one of a number of swimmers under the World Record in that event,

She is committed to swim at UC Davis in the fall.

The Jones siblings combined for the first two legs of the American gold medal 4x250m free relay with Lisa Yamamoto and Stephen Rouch, which cleared the field by almost nine seconds in 12:07.85.

IISA requires water temperatures to be lower than 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5C) to count; in Molveno the water temperature was a chilly 35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5C). Swimmers are not allowed to wear wetsuits.

France’s Theo Goyeaud was the other World Record-setter in Molveno, winning the 200 IM in 2:20.01.

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