First played September 2006 Type Endurance sport | Contact No | |
Team members five or two person team, individual Mixed gender Both male teams, women's teams and mixed teams can compete Country or region Originated in Sweden, but races have been starting from 2014 in others European Countries and America | ||
A Swimrun is a multiple-stage competition which involves participants running and swimming over a cross-country race course that involves many transitions between the swim and run stages of the race.
Contents
History
In 2002 Anders Malm, the owner of Utö Värdshus (the finish line hotel of ÖtillÖ), his friend Janne Lindberg and some of his staff (the Andersson brothers) had a late night in the bar. They challenged each other – “Last team of two to Sandhamn pays for hotel, dinner and drinks”. Two teams of two started the next morning with the only rule being that they had to pass the three different restaurants on the islands between the start and the finish. The last team at the restaurant had to drink and pay what the team ahead of them had ordered for them. It took them more than 24 hours and they were too tired to party on arrival. They tried again the year after with the same result. They're referred to as Original 4.
In 2006 Michael Lemmel and Mats Skott were asked if they could make a commercial race out of their crazy challenge. The first couple of years only 11 teams started and only two managed to finish within the time limits. Then something happened and the teams learned that the only way to race is by not stopping, with constant movement.
Unlike the original course set by the creators, Utö became the finish line while Sandhamn became the start. The race became known as ÖtillÖ (Island to island), Today the race is internationally recognized as the Swimrun World Championship and has been ranked by CNN as one of the toughest races in the World. It was also later mentioned by one article as one of the toughest 1-day endurance races in the world, and is currently the standard when it comes to rules and style of racing.
The style of racing picked up the name "Swimrun", given in 2011 by Erika Rosenbaum, one of the ÖtillÖ Swimrun World Championship podium finishers.
The first swimrun race done in warm water was Aquaticrunner XTriM ITALY and it started in 2014 on August 3. It is an individual swimrun race and not a standard dual-team race such as in ÖtillÖ. The biggest different between Aquaticrunner and the Nordic races are two: the Individual race (no team) and that swimming tools are not permitted (no fins, snorkel, etc.) with the exception that a pull buoy is allowed. In order to qualify, athletes must hold a title such as finishing 1st overall at another competition (Ironman, 70.3, long swim, marathon, etc.),. The swimming portion in total is about 4 km, while the running portion is 19 km. The Other races done outside of Sweden in 2014 was: Rockman Swimrun and XTERRA Swimrun both in Norway, Engandina in Switzerland and Amphibianman in Italy (this was the first outside of Sweden done on May 10, 2014).
In 2015, the world's first Ultraswimrun, the Stockholm Archipelago Ultra Challenge (SAUC) took place, and is now considered the toughest available swimrun race in the world, stretching over some 250 km. SAUC is also the official and original world championships of Ultraswimrun racing. In Sweden, and rapidly around the world, swimrun has become a new type of competition that has gathered considerable support from its growing sport and triathlon community and several annual races have been started in the world, but foremost across Sweden. The other world championship is located in Norway held by the XTERRA organisation and was 1st launched in 2014.
The international focus has been growing in the last years, and in 2016 (2016-05-10) there are more than 180 known races in the world, in 19 countries and on 4 continents. In 2016 the swimrun scene has seen the birth of several swimrun leagues, such as the ÖtillÖ world series, The Copenhagen Swimrun Series, the Breca Swimrun Series, the Trispot City Challenge and the Italia SwimRun Series, however where all but one of the 15 races in and around the Italian peninsula are individual races.
Swimrun characteristics
What defines a swimrun is that its always carried out outdoors and in water where the goal is to go from a starting point to a finish point through a course with at least 2 swim and run sections. All the equipment that a participant starts with has to be carried all the way to the finish line. Even though swimrun urges participants to use flotation equipment, equipment larger than 100×60 cm is not allowed.
Because of safety measures a swimrun competition is usually carried out by teams but there are several races where you can race individually. There are three classes to compete in; either a men`s class, women`s class or a mixed gender class.
Given that swimrun is a cross-country race, there are no standards yet in terms of how far the total run and swim should be, or how many transitions there should be in a swimrun competition, like there is in sports related to swimrun such as aquathlon, biathle or triathlon.
Swimrun Distances
The race levels vary in the world. There are no set race limits or race standards apart from having to compete in twos and as to what is constituted as a swimrun race. Currently the majority of races (2016) are spread among the following levels below (1st table).
The world standard swimrun distances are divided into 6 types, in accordance with the majority of available races including ÖtillÖ.
In Italy foremost, and few other European countries, a different distance scheme is used.