Dr Melau I presume.
© Kai-Otto Melau / nxtri.com
In August 2015, our Safety Director Jørgen Melau was standing by the shoreline in Eidfjord. The water temperature was 10 degrees Celcius, and the Norseman safety director was pondering whether it was safe to expose 250 athletes to the 3.8 km swim in such cold conditions.
The pondering ignited a research project looking into cold water swimming. This research has since been an annual occurrence during the Norseman event.
Today, Jørgen successfully defended his PhD thesis titled: Physiological changes following swimming in cold water in triathlon and military operations.
Jørgen and his colleagues’ work has contributed to the body of knowledge on the safety of swimming in cold water.
On behalf of the Norseman family, crew and athletes alike, we would like to extend our congratulations to Jørgen for his monumental effort.
Once his PhD theses is made available from the University of Oslo, we will post it here. In the meantime, you can find the included articles in abstracts and full text here.
Melau J, Mathiassen M, Stensrud T, Tipton M and Hisdal J. Core temperature in triathletes during swimming with wetsuit in 10 degrees Celcius cold water. , Sports, 2019;7(6):130
Melau J, Hisdal J and Solberg PA. Impact of a 10,000-m cold-water swim on Norwegian Naval Special Forces recruits. Journal of Special Operations Medicine, 2021;21(3):55-59
Hoiseth LØ, Melau J, Bonnevie-Svendsen M, Nyborg C, Eijsvogels TMH and Hisdal J. Core temperature during cold-water triathlon swimming. Sports, 2021;9(6):87