The United States’ hopes for extending its long Olympic medal streak in the men’s 200-meter backstroke rest on the shoulders of an ice swimmer.
Keaton Jones, a 19-year-old Olympic rookie, is the last American standing in an event where the U.S. has won at least one medal in every Summer Games since 1992. Ryan Murphy shockingly missed qualifying for finals in the event Wednesday night, ending his bid to become the first swimmer to medal in both the 100 and 200 backs in three straight Olympics. It was another blow to the U.S. swimming program, which has had a shaky Paris Olympics, and it means that Jones is the next man up Thursday night for what has been the best backstroking nation on the planet.
Prior to this year, Jones’s biggest global accomplishment was the five world records he set in January 2023 in the International Ice Swimming Championships. Which is a truly odd niche endeavor that tests humans’ ability to swim fast while trying not to freeze to death.
Sounds fun, doesn’t it?
Ice swimming takes place in water with a temperature of 41 degrees Fahrenheit, unassisted, with just a cap, pair of goggles and standard suit. Jones was talked into trying it by his coach Joe Zameitis at Swim Neptune, a club near his home in Gilbert, Ariz. In terms of climate, that’s about as far away from ice swimming territory as possible, but Zameitis is a fan of extreme diversions to keep the sport interesting.
He has taken some of his athletes to the Bay Area for open-water swims at Alcatraz and under the expanse of the Golden Gate Bridge. And at some point he got hooked up with the International Ice Swimming Association in Europe.
So Zemaitis talked Jones into doing the IISA’s fifth world championships in the Samoëns in France, a ski-resort town that set up swimlanes in a lake. Water temperature: about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Air temperature: about 39 degrees. No wetsuits allowed. There was no actual ice in the lake, but it certainly was icy.
This was during Jones’ senior year of high school, so the idea of missing several days of school and going to Europe sounded great. The Guinness Book of World Records people would be there to certify records, so this also was a chance to put his name in a book.
“And who wouldn’t want to spend a week in France?” Jones says.
Now he’s spending an even more exciting week in France. But back to the ice swimming.
An Olympic trials qualifier, Jones assuredly was better than the normal caliber of ice swimmer. He became the first American to set IISA records, breaking world marks in backstroke, butterfly and freestyle events to become an immediate ice-swimming legend of sorts.
Jones’s prep work to get ready for the shock of full-body immersion and competition in breathtakingly cold water?
“I’d take a 10-minute ice bath to get used to it and try to breathe really hard to simulate a race the best I could,” he says. “It’s a great feeling when you finish a race and you have a weird rush in your body. You’re kind of buzzing. It’s sort of surreal and amazing.”
After the races, swimmers head quickly to hot tubs or saunas to raise their body temperature. Jones said the whole thing was a blast, but over the course of three days the cold immersions took their toll.
“By event five, my body was not feeling great,” Jones says.
After the glory of ice swimming in Europe, Jones matriculated to California-Berkeley—the Mecca for backstrokers under coach Dave Durden. A top-10 national recruit, Jones was just a member of a star-studded cast as a freshman. But he was ready for his shot when it was time for Olympic trials.
“If you want to make an Olympic team for backstroke, that’s the place,” Jones says. “I love Dave and Berkeley is a great school. But I wanted to make an Olympic team and backstroke is my event, and Dave has a history of getting the job done in that.”
Jones was seeded seventh in the 200 back but immediately jumped into the top two in preliminary heats, then had the fastest time in the semifinals. Murphy, the elder statesman and tone setter of Cal backstrokers, won the final but Jones closed hard to beat Jack Aikins by .17 seconds and punch his ticket to Paris.
Jones was the latest backstroke sidekick to main man Murphy, and he brought considerable confidence with him out of Indianapolis.
“We’re going to have three [Cal] Bears in that A final in Paris,” he declared. “It’s going to be very exciting."
Turns out there are only two—Jones and Hugo Gonzalez, who swims for Spain. Murphy is the shocking miss, a turn of events that left Jones looking and sounding a bit shaken Wednesday night.
But the 19-year-old Olympic rookie, seasoned by ice swimming, is ready to give everything he has to continue America’s backstroke medal tradition.
“I feel like I’m getting better as the meet goes along,” he said Wednesday. “There were a lot of guys who brought it tonight. It’s going to be whoever shows up, and in the last 25 [meters] just put your head down and grind.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as It’s Up to Ice Swimmer Keaton Jones to Carry on the U.S.’s 200-Meter Backstroke Medal Streak.
