2.2 km ice swimming

Doctor to athlete: “You’re too fat to swim”

Melissa Kegler broke a record as an athlete. But her obesity attracts more attention.(Bild: Dan McComb)

Melissa Kegler set an ice-cold record: she swam 2.2 kilometers at a water temperature of five degrees. However, the media reports about her success are dominated by one topic in particular: Melissa's obesity. She says: "You can look like me and still achieve great things!"

Ice swimming is not a sport for the faint-hearted. For all those who practice it, the so-called ice mile is considered the ultimate achievement: clad only in a swimsuit, swimming cap and goggles, you try to cover the distance of 1,609.3 meters as quickly as possible in water that is a maximum of five degrees "warm". Melissa Kegler is one of the few people to have swum such ice miles and broken the American record in the process.