Nikolay Petshak, 64, who swam from Russia to America, died in ‘accident’ in river where he carried the Olympic flame.
Petshak had been an ice swimmer for 40 years and he drowned while exercising in summer in the Yenisei River in Krasnoyarsk region, confirmed local sporting officials.
He was famous for enduring temperatures of 2 or 3C for at least 40 minutes.
The swimmer was known for overcoming 134 kilometres in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans from Chukotka to Alaska.
In doing so he set the world recording 2012 for world’s longest swim completed in ice cold water.
In November 2013, he led a group of members of local winter swimming clubs during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay in the Yenisei.
Read The Siberian Times
