Photo: Udrekeli via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped. This adapted image is also licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

Vegan Francois-Xavier Filias Wins Seven Golds at the Winter Swimming World Championships

The French swimmer set breaststroke records over 50m, 100m and 200m in water carved out of a frozen sea

French vegan swimmer Francois-Xavier Filias has become the most successful champion in the history of the Winter Swimming World Championships. He won seven golds, a silver and a bronze in Finland this week, and set records in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, Great Vegan Athletes reports.

The championships ran from March 2 to March 8 in Oulu, the first time they have been back in the city in 20 years, according to the International Winter Swimming Association. Swimmers raced in sub-zero water, in pools cut out of a sea frozen under 90cm of ice.

Filias got there the hard way. He raced seven times on the World Cup circuit this season and won all seven to qualify. He now holds the all-time points record and is the first French winter swimming world champion. He summed up the conditions in one line:

Every stroke was a victory over the freezing void.

Before taking on the ice, Filias placed in breaststroke and freestyle at the Open Water World Championships and raced ice swimming up to 500m. He has been vegan since 2020 and keeps his diet varied, with plenty of rice bowls and veggie wraps, Viva! reports. He told Great Vegan Athletes:

I love filling them with a mix of fresh vegetables and pan-seared soy protein.

Vegans have been taking on cold water for a while now. Graeme Souness swam the Channel at 70, Damian Hall won the Winter Spine Race through a British winter, and Misato Komatsubara made history on the ice as part of Japan's first NHK Trophy-winning ice dance pair.