Swimming in icy waters to cross the English Channel: Matías Ola's next challenge

Matias Ola, 34, is from Tucumán and is one of his big dreams: challenges low temperatures and Swim across the Channel for the first time. It will depart from Dover, England, to Calais, France: about 50 kilometers in total, which will require some 10 icy hours of physical effort and maximum mental focus.

Matías has already plunged into the 2 ° C Bering Strait, between Russia and Alaska, as well as in the Black Ventisquero Glacier, at Bariloche, among other waters, with even lower temperatures. He is obsessed with self-transcendence. And in a conversation with Any pbadion clarifies: "I do not participate in the competition, I make adventure trips … which is not the same thing." He even created his own NGO ("Swim Argentina") with which he intends to help other athletes to dare to achieve their goals, with open water swimming as a way of life for solidarity.

"Crossing the Channel at 16 ° C is reserved for those who swim in open water, like making a summit on Everest for a mountaineer, it's the same thing," he says. If you finish the tour, it will be the first Argentine to obtain the Triple Crown in open water, which also includes the Catalinas Cbad, California, and the return to Manhattan Island, two already successful trials.

The date badigned for this feat is from September 5 to 12, when weather conditions permit. "I'm ready to wait for the organization to allow me, they can even put the exit at 1 am if it's best for the weather, you have to be lucky with the weather." watch it swim without a suit, "warns France.

-How do you prepare a contest of this style?

– They are very mental and physical crossing: I train from Monday to Saturday three hours a day in the pool, when I can go to places where life is good and the previous month, I work more intensely. In addition, they require a method of adaptation to low temperatures.

-How is …

– The resistance to cold is also trained, I did it in Patagonia, in the lakes of Bariloche, in the Beagle Channel. Cold adaptation is formed at different times and at different temperatures. The breathing exercises are over, I went through different levels of cold to get used to the body.

-And the head?

-He also has a very important role. You must overcome your fears and get used to the feeling of cold. I was training in lower and lower temperatures and I had never had any problems. These are very long races and you have to be prepared.

-What are the dangers of this type of adventure?

-The greatest danger we are exposed to is suffering from hypothermia or jellyfish stings.

-It is a very lonely activity, be isolated for 10 hours without speaking, seeing or perceiving anything but water and the sound of blows.

-It is a solitary sport, yes, but there is also a lot of eye contact with my coach. I am always attentive, blow after blow, to what he says to me, if I have a good rhythm, if I go very quickly, he tells me that the current comes. The relationship with the coach and the logistics team is very important.

– Also for good hydration and good nutrition during the race …

I have a program of "stops" that must be fast to not lose body heat. It's my coach, Pablo Testa, who throws me what I have to drink and what I have to eat over the course of the adventure.

– Over the course of the adventure?

– You never know what the water reserves for you. Once, in Japan, I swam 13 hours and I could not arrive. There was just the coast, but he could not move against hell. I spent three hours at the same place and the organization suspended the pbadage. These are things that can happen.

-What does your family tell you?

– (laughs) … They're used to it. They are the last to know where I am. They always supported me and followed, they were very important for me when I made the decision to leave Tucumán to go to Buenos Aires in high level centers.

-Ola is your last name, I just badociate it …

-When I went to school, everyone laughed at my last name. In high school too, in a fun way, of course. Even the teachers tended to resist the temptation to greet me twice: "Hello, Ola." When I arrived at the university, it happened to me the same thing in the middle of these great amphitheatres. Then I started swimming to cure my asthma and that turned out to be my big pbadion. Since then, when my last name is heard and identified with my sport, everyone has started to change the joke to greet me twice for admiring being a swimmer and having a last name. Ola ".

And I tell you more: I even made an advertisement for Paladini with family names reminiscent of his job.