There's a couple of people with the physiological capability and the necessary mindset (combining derring-do, ability to handle pain, courage, and a dash of nuttiness) to swim in extremely cold (life-threatening cold) water.
Most recently, Lewis Gordon Pugh swam in a glacial lake in the shadow of Mount Everest, taking it slow due to the altitude:
British man dubbed the 'human polar bear' becomes first person to complete long distance swim on Everest
Pugh is a physiological freak: his body heats up when he just thinks about swimming in cold water. Because of this, he has also swum a mile in Antarctic waters, immersed for 30 minutes, and a mile in Arctic waters off Spitzbergen, immersed for 21 minutes.
Lewis Gordon Pugh
The other swimmer who has done a couple of these is Lynne Cox, who swam from the United States to Russia in the Bering Sea (between the Diomede Islands) and also a mile in Antarctica. In the Bering Sea, she was in the water about 2 hours, covering 2.7 miles. You can't swim fast in water that cold.
Bering Strait swim
It should also be noted that both Pugh and Cox have done more conventional long-distance swims. Cox was the first person to swim the Straits of Magellan in Chile, and she has also been an English Channel record holder -- twice. Pugh has also done a Channel crossing.
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