#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In Nizhny Novgorod, the final winners of the prestigious award in the field of event tourism, Russian Event Awards, were announced – 327 projects from 59 regions of the country and seven projects from Belarus reached the finals. In total, 648 initiatives claimed victory.
The X-Waters Yenisei project, which was announced by the Norilsk Development Agency (NDA), was awarded a special diploma for the implementation of a sports event in difficult climatic conditions in the category Best Tourist Event in the Field of Sports.
The NDA specialist in the Tourism Development direction, Angela Tkachenko, recalled that the first extreme swims in Taimyr began in 2021 on lake Lama – the start became an invaluable experience and helped loudly declare the tourism potential of the peninsula:
“But not everyone can get to lake Lama, so in 2023 we decided to move the swim to Dudinka, on the Yenisey river. Our swim has become more accessible to Taimyr residents and has united even more fans of cold swimming and spectators”.
The premiere swim of X-WATERS Yenisei took place in Dudinka on July 29. The polar Yenisey was conquered by about 80 daredevils from nine cities of the country: Norilsk, Dudinka, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Samara, Gatchina, Magadan, Novosibirsk and Perm.
Open water swimmers, most of them non-professionals, braved the fast and cold river. Athletes were offered three distances to choose from: three kilometers, 500 meters and 100 meters. The water temperature on the Yenisey surface on the swim day was 17.8 degrees.
The X-WATERS Yenisei swim took place thanks to the joint efforts of the Norilsk Development Agency, the Business Culture company, and the administrations of the Taimyr municipal district, Dudinka and Norilsk. Support was provided by the companies Nornickel and Passazhirrechtrans, Nornickel – Yenisey River Shipping Company and Vodohod, the Polar Transport Branch of Nornickel and the Housing and Communal Services Department of Norilsk, the Dudinka inspection section of the Center for GIMS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Taimyr, the search and rescue team and the 16th fire and rescue squad of the Emergency Situations Ministry of Russia for the Krasnoyarsk region, the Taimyr linear department of the Internal Affairs Ministry of Russia, the Taimyr region’s private security department and the Taimyr administration’s Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Department. The partners of the first cold swim on the Yenisey were the X-Fit North club and NordStar airline.
Previously, Norilsk residents got two diplomas as laureates of the national Route of the Year award.
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Text: Angelika Stepanova, Photo: Denis Kozhevnikov
