People would do almost anything for the recognition that they wanted. An Austrian man named Josef Koeberl was willing to be covered in cold ice cubes to his shoulders for more than two hours just to set a new world record.
He set this new world record on Saturday and he is clearly very proud of the record that he has achieved. With only wearing such minimal clothing that is a pair of swimming trunks, he covered himself with the total value of 1,800kg of ice in a tank located in the main square of the Austrian town of Melk, west of Vienna.
The reason for him to do such a thing was that he wanted to set a brand new world record for the event of the longest duration of full-body contact with ice. As we all know, being in a physical close contact with ice cubes on our body could be so unbearable and also painful. This man decided to deny that by doing this action.
In Josef Koeberl’s mind, he wanted to break two of the past records. the first record is the official Guinness World Record held by China’s Songhao Jin, with the record of 1 hour, 53 minutes and 10 seconds in ice in 2014, and the second would be by himself. Josef Koeberl told CNN that last year, he already endured this challenge with the record of two hours and 8 minutes at an attempt in Vienna.
He said “My motivation was to go beyond my own limits and point out climate change at the same time. As I train a lot in high alpine terrain, I want to raise awareness on the melting of the glaciers”. This 43-year-old Austrian man told CNN that this time, he successfully can last for a period of two hours, 30 minutes and 53 seconds. He also hopes that in the coming few days, his proud attempt will be approved as a world record.
