Swimming The Arctic Circle: A Dream Swim!
Swim the Arctic Circle is an event which has been on my radar for a few years now. A truly unique, bucket list swim experience starting in Sweden and finishing on the other side of the river and border in Finland – also crossing the Arctic Circle.
After sitting at my computer on the day entries opened, pressing refresh constantly, I successfully managed to get a place in both the 3000m and 2000m swims. Yay! Not an easy task with just 250 places available for an event in huge demand, attracting entries from all over the world. The swim had also recently been featured in Outdoor Swimmer magazine and all over Facebook, so I felt really lucky to get places in both events.
We planned our Finland trip with the help of a friend who has an independent travel business. The trip was made more of a challenge as the swim location was right up north in Lapland. We quickly discovered it’s not as easy to find places to stay which are open in Lapland in summer!! We booked accommodation in Helsinki, internal flights to Lapland and a hire car and started to count down the days.
We arrived in Helsinki the Wednesday before the swim. What a stunning place and somewhere that had always been on my list of places to visit. Ste tasted reindeer during our stay, a local delicacy, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat poor Rudolph! We also visited the real Santa in Santa Claus Village in Lapland (he’s there all year round!) but it was about 32 degrees the day we visited, there was no snow! I told Santa about my swim, he seemed impressed. He also loved that we were from Liverpool and we chatted football, with him telling us all about his team – Santa FC!
Swim Day! Saturday 12th July 2025
The day of the swim arrived. The 2000m swim started at midday from Sweden on a beach north of the Arctic Circle, finishing south of the Arctic Circle. We made our way to registration in the morning in glorious conditions – 28 degree air temp, 18 degree water temp, nice. I was always planning to swim skins in both events, but brought a wetsuit as backup, in case the water temp was too low and wetsuits became compulsory.
A really lovely relaxed team of local people greeted us at registration. They have organised the swim for years and you can see how passionate they are about it and how they love welcoming people from all over the world. I picked up my wristbands, T-shirts and kit bag and we sat chilling in the sunshine eating pizza (grinning thinking Matt and Dani would love it here,) and chatting to other competitors.
The swim would take us over the national border to Finland and we were blessed with a good strong flow in the river and perfect sunshine and conditions.
I chatted to people from England, America and Australia as we waited to start. And then we were off. The water felt like silk and was around 18 degrees, but it felt much warmer. I felt really good and strong and got into a nice pace almost immediately, using swim squad open water tactics to find my place in the water, overtaking swimmers and getting space and clear water.
I cruised along and completed the 2000m swim in 27mins 45 seconds. Of course, I took time to look up and take in the scenery along the way too. Otherwise what’s the point! Along the riverbank were gorgeous little red wooden huts and I popped my head up to take in the scenery and check to make sure I was following the buoys and sighting for the best line. On exit from the water, the friendly volunteers greeted us with our medals and hot soup. We sat on the river banks cheering other swimmers in as they finished. Everyone crossed the finish line with a huge smile.
With hours to go before the night swim, we went for a chilled walk along the river banks, as there’s not much else to do up in Lapland region in summer, but the area is beautiful! We did find that the mosquitos quite liked us and they were pretty big compared with any I’ve experienced before.
Swim Night!
We all started to gather at the café waiting for the coaches which would take us over the border to Finland (a 40 minute drive) There was a feeling of excitement on the bus as our local guide told us facts about the area as we sat dressed in our gear ready to swim, seeing reindeer galloping across the roads, alongside us and grazing in the fields as we passed, a pretty magical sight.
We arrived at our start location after 11pm, under the bright evening Nordic summer sun, there was a fire pit and I made my way towards that to stay warm, mesmerised by the flames. The mosquitoes were buzzing around us like mini vampires as us skins swimmers put our clothes in bags and attached our tow floats ready to start. The mosquitos didn’t seem keen on the fire, so that’s where I stayed until we were called to the start, chatting to other swimmers about our previous and future swim experiences.
All lined up and ready to start from the Finnish shore at five past midnight, (Finnish time), it was dusky but not dark and a beautiful sunset developed in front of us. I got chatting to a lady skins swimmer with the same rainbow tow float as me – Ali – she lives in Wirral!! She said she thought she recognised my profile Mersey Mermaid and we realised we had several swim friends in common – small world! Then the countdown, we wished each other a good swim and we were off into the water. We swam over the border between Sweden and Finland crossing the Arctic Circle and the time zone.
I felt even better swimming than I had earlier, really smooth and steady. The flow was fast and I was passing lots of people, the water didn’t feel cold at all and I was so glad I didn’t have to wear a wetsuit as I could really feel the water and felt part of it. I picked up my pace at the end and passed a few people on the way in, heading directly for the finish board and giving it a good strong tap. I completed the 3000m swim in 37 mins 37 seconds, successfully crossing the finish line the day before the swim started! There’s a big clock at the finish so you can see your time, and everyone was buzzing as they got out, collected their medal and got their picture taken next to it.
The swims were amazing and I’m so glad I got to be there, as there was a point the week before where it might not have happened at all.
Some of you will know my Dad had been really poorly following a stroke late in 2023 and on the Sunday night after the swim, my mum called to tell me he had taken a bad turn and was in a coma and would never wake up.
I went to say goodbye to my dad on the Tuesday before we flew to Finland, just in case, and he said he couldn’t wait for me to come back and tell him everything about my swim and Finland. I really wasn’t sure we would make it back in time, but my Dad hung on for me. We arrived home on the Wednesday morning and went straight to see him. Even though he was in a coma, I told him everything and showed him pictures and my medals. I talked to him for hours and held his hand. He passed away at 7am the next morning with my mum and me by his side.
I don’t want to end this magical story on such a sad note.
This was a truly fantastic swim event and experience and one I will always treasure and be grateful I was able to do. Finland and Sweden are stunning countries, the people are super friendly and helpful. Helsinki is such a vibrant and beautiful city where swimming and saunas are the norm and I will definitely go back.
Would I do this swim again – yes, in a heartbeat.
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