How to Qualify for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship

Welcome to Episode 101 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast! 

In this episode, we expound upon the various ways that Swimrun teams can qualify for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. This episode is pretty self-serving since we were trying to figure this out to determine our own chances of qualifying for the World Championship and figured that we put it together for everyone before the application period opens on December 14th.

There are a total of 160 team spots available for qualification for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. The race is held on the first Monday in September every year.

To be able to participate in ÖTILLÖ you have to race in a team consisting of two persons that are at least 18 years old and able to swim. Each team member needs to have valid insurance for swimrun or sports similar to swimrun. Some other things worth noting:

  • Your application is final and will not be reimbursed if a team is accepted. Use your insurance if you have a medical issue and need a reimbursement.

  • You are allowed to change one team member of the same gender. This can’t happen until after ÖTILLÖ Engadin.

  • No external sales of your entry is allowed.

There are five ways to get a spot at the legendary race. We will discuss each below:

1. Podium at ÖTILLÖ World Series Distance Race

  • Pretty self-explanatory here

  • 9 spots available at each event, 3 for each category (Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed)

2. Direct Qualification

  • 9 spots per event

  • This is essentially like a roll-down qualification

  • Spots are distributed between classes according to the number of races per class 

  • E.g., 4 men, 3 mixed, 2 women

3. 7/24 Concept

  • Starting in 2017, The 7/24 concept is a guaranteed way of getting a spot at the Swimrun World Championship

  • You and your teammate have to race 5 World Series races & 2 Merit races in 24 months. It can be any of them and it can also be the same races two times. All you have to do is finish them. Then you apply and you will get a guaranteed spot

  • This way will also put you relatively high in the ranking which will allow you to apply in that category too

4. Race Directors Choice

  • 10 spots at the race director’s discretion

  • Typically given throughout the year for sponsors, media and/or special circumstances

  • E.g., when Rich Roll/Chris Hauf qualified in 2018 it was through a director’s choice

5. Swimrun Ranking Points: (We’ll spend most of the time on this one since it’s the method that affects us)

  • 78 Spots

  • The spots are distributed evenly between the classes according to the amount of applications per class

  • If you apply in more than one category we will select the team with the highest ranking in the respective category (Men, Women or Mixed)

  • Reserve lists will be made per class and are based on ranking 

  • Presentation of teams on the first Thursday of February. The application opens on December 14th

Important to note for Race Directors and ranking slots:

  • The distribution of Ranking and Directors choice Spots will be done according to the amount of applications per category (men, women and mixed) so that we have an equal percentage between the categories.

  • In other words, if more women teams apply than in year’s past, there will be more spots assigned to that category. Wild Swimrun has a great article on their website explaining how this works.  

How does the Swimrun Ranking system work?

It’s basically a points system. Teams register at swimrunranking.com and results are assigned points after teams either submit their finish times or they are auto-populated for ÖTILLÖ events. 

The points are distributed based on the following criteria:

  • The system is built using inverse property.

  • 40% of the points are based on your overall result in the race. No matter which class you are in.

  • 60% of the points are based on your time in relation to the average time of all finishing teams. This means that teams finishing very close together get very similar “time points” in relationship to their position and vice versa i.e. performance driven.

  • Races are weighted differently. The base points are multiplied by a coefficient that are as follows: ÖTILLÖ World Series Races x 1,25 (ÖTILLÖ World Series Races before 2020 had the coefficient 1,1) and ÖTILLÖ merit races x 1,0.

  • All teams that finish a race get ranking points.

  • Your points will devalue with 75% after 365 days from getting them, after 24 months they will disappear completely.

  • Your six (6) best points over the last 24 month period will count towards your ranking (this means that devalued points might be exchanged for more current points).

Race Entry Fee: 15,900 Swedish Krona (SEK) or about $1,738 per team

Fee includes:

  • Transport from Stockholm City to Pre- Race Hotel (Sunday)

  • Hotel accommodation (Sunday)

  • Dinner (Sunday)

  • Breakfast (Monday)

  • Transport to Start (Monday)

  • Race (Monday)

  • Transport of bags to Finish (Monday)

  • Dinner Utö (Monday)

  • Accommodation at Utö or Monday Night Transport to Stockholm (Monday)

  • Breakfast at Utö (Tuesday)

  • Ferry transport to Stockholm City (Tuesday)

We hope this has demystified the process a bit and wish everyone the best of luck if racing from Sandhamn to Utö is on your bucket list of activities.

If you are looking for swimrun races to earn points for Ötillö, or just for fun, be sure to check out our swimrun race calendar for the US.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

-  Chip and Chris

swimrun 101, OtilloChipper Nicodemus