After swimming across the English Channel 9 years ago, Bulgaria’s top swimmer Petar Stoychev conquered another extreme challenge. The 41-year-old world champion at 25km from 2011 and 11-time winner of the World Cup in marathon swimming took the gold at the 10^th Winter World Swimming Championship in Tyumen (Russia).

Stoychev won the gold medal in the category 40-44 years in the discipline 400 m freestyle. He also took a bronze medal in the 200 meters.

Stoychev fought for the medal amidst extreme conditions such as water temperature at zero degrees Celsius and and air temperature at minus 11 degrees Celsius.

The Winter World Swimming Championship had 1,725 participating swimmers from 42 nations. Most of the disciplines were by Russians who have experience and are accustomed to these conditions. Few athletes from other nations managed to grab the gold medal, among them was the Bulgarian Petar Stoychev.