A young woman puts her health and happiness down to starting every day with a swim in a minus 4-degree lake, just in her swimsuit.
Elina Mäkinen, 27, has over a million social media followers who are intrigued by her mental grit and huge smile as she leaps into freezing water. She swims for between two and four minutes in the icy pools each day, with the backdrop of snow-covered Helsinki, Finland.
“Water is usually coldest at 0.2 degree Celsius [32.3 F] because the water can be minus degrees only if it is salted or flowing,“ she said. “So basically the coldest point is after getting up when air is minus 20 degree Celsius [-4 F] or colder. ... Sometimes it is a real struggle with the pain, but there’s still always the after-swim euphoria.”
Elina, who loves being in nature, first discovered the joys of the chilly dip at the age of 5 when her grandfather and brother took her along for the swim.
“My grandpa shouted to me to get out and that I’m not supposed to swim in the water," she said. “We now laugh about the event and he told me he was never scared for my swimming skills but more scared that he had to get in the water as well! I was born in December and babies sleep outside in Finland during winter time, so I guess I have liked cold since very early ages. Of course, I love summertime too.”
Swimming in the icy lakes is a tradition in Finland in winter, so Elina was acclimatized throughout her childhood and continued when she started studying tax law at the University of Eastern Finland.
“Going to the sauna and ice was my get-away and time to relax,” she said. “We participated in competitions in ice with my mum and got to know more of ice swimming culture and people around the world. I started noticing the mental and physical game is something I really enjoy and decided after the 2014 World Championships to start training for longer distances like 450 meters and 1000 meters.”
Her favorite local lake to swim in is the Suuri Vehkalahti in Joensuu, but she also likes to hit up spots in Russia when on holiday. Elina aims to swim for between two and four minutes every day and occasionally just braves a quicker dip to wake up her body but not get too cold. She opts for a longer swim, up to 17 minutes, once a month just to maintain her ability to swim in extreme conditions.
“I used to tie a rope around my hips so that I could swim still, but the only problem was that the rope froze to the stairs so I could not get the knot open,” she said. “It was minus 30 degrees [-22 F] outside and I managed to get off my belt and went to sauna to warm up myself. I had to pour warm water on the rope to open it after a few hours.
“After that, I learned to be extra careful and always have plan B!”
Despite her calm exterior, Elina wants people to know that bearing the cold is not easy.
“I love getting out of [my] comfort zone, so every time I least feel like I want to get in, that is the time I push myself to go out for the swim,” she said.
Her secret to bearing the arctic temperatures is both not thinking about the cold and staying conscious of how her body feels. While filming one of her early videos, a police officer spotted her in the water and climbed down to the river just to check that she was fine.
“It was super hard for me to take videos in public places after that!” she said. “I hope that I can encourage people to try ice swimming but at the same time want to remind [them] to [be careful] and be safe.
“I usually like to take my friends out for a swim when I see them, so they can’t really avoid my brainwashing. Strangers are then divided to the people saying I’m crazy and people who get inspired to do something crazy.
“Go out of your comfort zone.”
