The serene beauty of a winter swim

There is something captivating about a breaststroke amid snowfall

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Winter swimmers swim in a partially ice-covered swimming pool in Changzhi, Shanxi province, January 16, 2008.
A swimmer dives into the icy waters of the Houhai Lake in central Beijing on Dec. 21, 2010.
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic))

Winter swimmers do the breaststroke in a partially ice-covered swimming pool in Changzhi, Shanxi province, China, on Jan. 16, 2008.
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA) CHINA OUT))

Members of a local winter swimming club swim in the Yenisei River during their weekly bathing session in the Russian Siberian town of Divnogorsk on Jan. 31, 2014.
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin))

A man swims in a lake amid snowfall at a park in Jinan, Shandong province, China, on Nov. 12, 2009.
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Stringer))

Liard hot springs in winter in British Columbia, Canada, 2001.
(Image credit: (Gunter Max Photography/CORBIS))

A winter swimmer dives into the calm waters of Pagasitikos bay in the Greek port town of Volos on Dec. 12, 2004.
(Image credit: (REUTER/Yannis Behrakis YB/AA))

A woman swims in a pool during a snow storm in Jerusalem on Dec. 13, 2013.
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Brian Snyder))

Bathers swim in the Blue Lagoon, a runoff pond that stays warm through winter at the Svartsengi geothermal power plant in Iceland on Nov. 11, 1991.
(Image credit: (Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS))

People sprint into the frigid waters of Berlin's Strandbad Wannsee lido on March 29, 2013.
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz))

A man climbs out of the hole cut into a frozen lake for ice-swimming in Kuopio, Central Finland, on Feb. 14, 2002.
(Image credit: (Tessa Bunney/In Pictures/Corbis))

Lauren Hansen
Lauren Hansen

Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.