ICE Hall of Fame - Honoree

Open Water Swimming Highlights

• He finished 10th overall in the 1000m freestyle at the 13th Winter Swimming World Championships in Lake Bled, Slovenia on 24 January 2023.
• He serves as an International Ice Swimming Association official.
• He serves as President of the Ice Swimming Association Austria.
• He participated in the 2014 Winter Swimming Championships in Finland where he competed in the 450m endurance swim.
• He is the event director of the Austrian Ice Swimming Championships, an ice swimming competition and part of the global ice circuit, a series of ice swimmingcompetitions around the world that adhere to the rules and regulations of the International Ice Swimming Association.
• He is attempting to complete the Oceans Seven.
• He competed in the 2016 Winter World Swimming Championships in Tyumen, Russia.
• He finished 43rd in the 1 km race on 1 January 2017 in the Ice Swimming Aqua Sphere World Championships in Burghausen, Germany.
• He won the 2018 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year in a global online poll for his Icebears Hintertux camp.
• He was named as one of the 2019 World's 50 Most Adventurous Open Water Men by the World Open Water Swimming Association.
• He serves as the event director of the 2019 Austrian Ice Swimming Championshipsheld on 15-16 February in Altenwörth, Austria.
• On 16 February 2019, he finished 8th in the Ice Kilometer race in 4.6°C water and 8°C air in Freizeitverein Altenwörth in Altenwörth, Austria.
• He competed in the Ice Kilometer at the 4rd International Ice Swimming Association World Championship held in Murmansk, Russia in March 2019.
• He set the Guinness World Record for the "Longest Duration of Full Body Contact With Ice" on 10 August 2019 in Vienna, Austria when he sat in an ice bath for 2 hours 8 minutes 47 seconds. Köberl broke the longest time spent in direct, full-body contact with ice by Jin Songhao of China in 1 hour 53 minutes 10 seconds that was set in the CCTV-Guinness World Records Special in Xiamen, Fujian, China on September 4th 2014.
• He competed in the Ice Kilometer at the Amstel Ice Swim in the Netherlands held on 29-30 December 2019.
• He serves as the event director of the International IC Altenwörth(SILVESTERSCHWIMMEN), an ice swimming event sanctioned by the International Ice Swimming Association in Altenwörth, Austria on 15 February 2020 in 4.80°C water. It serves as the ice swimming national championships in Austria.
• He finished 5th in the 1000m freestyle, 2nd in the 200m freestyle, 3rd in the 100m freestyle and 1st in the 50m freestyle at the International IC Altenwörth in Altenwörth, Austria was held on 15 February 2020.
• On 10 July 2021, he attempted to complete an Ice Mile at 3,216 meters (10,551 feet) in altitude within the glacier crevasse at the Nature Ice Palace on the Hintertux Glacier in Austria in -0.23°C water temperature. He swam for 38 minutes and completed a total of 1,511 meters, just short of a 1,609-meter high-altitude Ice Mile

Josef Köberl Links

• IISA BIO
• Openwaterpedia