By Dan Lalande
“We don’t control conditions.”
That quote (others just as instructive and inspiring will follow) is proof positive that Tom Heyerdahl can communicate in full sentences. If that doesn’t sound like much of a feat, consider that he spends a healthy portion of his daily life in water 15 degrees or colder.
Those are the conditions that he’s referring to, whether he’s testing himself in the training facility he created by carving a 25-metre lane out of the snowy surface of Britannia Beach or in equally frigid swimming pools across North America and Europe. If risked improperly, those waters will wreak serious havoc on your body temperature. Blood flow to your extremities will become restricted, your breathing will get short and uncontrollable, and your heart will pound until you think the whole world can hear it. When most ice swimmers emerge from that near-death experience, they can hardly talk.
And believe it or not … it’s good for you. Or at least, it’s been good for Tom, the brave, burly soul who took up the increasingly popular sport in answer to myriad conditions: bipolarity, asthma and PTSD. Then, there was the deep depression that affected him after the premature death of his wife of 25 years.
That was the tipping point in his conversion from couch potato to athlete. The then 280-pound school teacher, currently on disability leave, is an impressive 240 today. His new life started with the simple act of walking. A year later, he was logging 21 kilometres a day and participating, as a speed walker, in half-marathons. When an injury forced him into the pool, he was apprehensive. “I could swim,” he assesses, “but I wasn’t a swimmer.”
What he was, though, was committed. “What I learned from speed walking was the ins and outs of development: start small, stay consistent, build. Training daily gives me seven times the progress of someone who does it once a weekend.” The proof: Tom participated in over 20 competitions of various distances over the ensuing 24 months.
Just when he had warmed up to the water, though, it got colder. Tom was encouraged to check out wildbigswim.com, the Wiki for all things ice-swim related. After that, he found himself part of a group ritualistically braving the frigid, pre-dawn Ottawa River.
Today, there are 600 ice milers around the world, of which Tom is one of the few senior members. Most criss-cross the globe to participate in International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) events. In 2024, Tom ventured to Virginia to participate in the American National Ice Swimming Championship. Over 50 swimmers took to a six-lane, 25-metre outdoor pool, filled with water registered at five degrees Celsius. Heyerdahl took home an eye-opening six medals and qualified for the Worlds.
Earlier this year, he flew to Molveno, Italy, a South Tyrolean community in the country’s Northern region, as one of eight Canadians sanctioned to shine on the big stage. Tom’s a tough cookie but this time, the events he took part in almost made him crumble. “Normally, it takes you 30-60 seconds to acclimatize. In competition, you have five. And in Italy, there were added complications: jet lag, the altitude, the chlorine—plus, the added pressure of the crowd. People were cheering in the stands and the event was being livestreamed to friends and relatives.” Nevertheless, Tom found a way to finish both races, the latter with 13 seconds still on the clock.
Tom’s grand plan is to complete the triple crown of open swimming: the waters surrounding Manhattan, the leg from L.A. to Catalina and that aquatic Mount Everest, the English Channel. Soon, he’ll be signing up for the latter. The three-year wait list will give him ample time to prepare. If potential sponsors are reading, this is a golden opportunity to be part of the supportive local and international community that has enriched Tom’s life.
Since taking up the sport, Tom has leaped from hometown hero to online darling. “It can be overstimulating, which is bad for a guy with my conditions,” he admits. “I have to remind myself that what I am is ‘Britannia famous,’” he laughs. His closest soul family, however, remain his fellow ice swimmers. “It still amazes me that I can come out of frigid water into the open air and have people form a circle with their backs to me to protect me from the elements. And I do it for them. The lesson is that while you’re accepting help, you yourself should have someone that you’re helping.”
For Tom Heyerdahl, then, cold comfort’s not a bad thing.
