ÖTILLÖ Utö 2021 Race Recap with Special Guests, Team Helena and Åsa

Welcome to episode seventy-seven of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

ÖTILLÖ made its return to hosting events this past weekend on the Island of Utö...and what a triumphant return it was. The races looked super fun and the fields were stacked with a lot of the heavy hitters in the sport in attendance. We are super stoked to share our race recap with you and share a special guest race report with Helena Bjälkemo and Åsa Ehrnholm of Team Helena and Åsa. They were just the coolest and it was super fun to chat with them.

But first... 

Training Update

Our training for our Fall race schedule is going well. The intensity is picking up a bit with several rounds of fast intervals at our latest Swimrun practice and we didn’t die so that’s good. A lot of work still to do before Casco Bay but we’re having fun...so is it really work? 

Want to join us at Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay? Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. 

Shoutouts/Feats of Endurance

Blanket shoutout and Feats of Endurance awards to everyone who raced ÖTILLÖ Utö this past weekend. 

Special bonus shoutout to our friend Oscar Olsson (and previous guest of the show) for his great interviews and commentary all weekend long as part of the livesporttv.se crew.

The FOMO was real for us but it was great to see so many members of our Strava club racing.

Speaking of which, make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.

ÖTILLÖ Utö 2021 Recap

Swimrun season finally feels like it’s officially open with ÖTILLÖ’s first race of the year on the island of Utö. Not only was the sport of Swimrun essentially born on this island in the Stockholm Archipelago but it’s also just an amazing location for Swimrunning. 

Due to COVID restrictions the race was split up over two days with the Experience and Sprint races taking place on Saturday and the Sunday World Series distance race being broken up into three races with the Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed team races being split up over the course of the day to be in line with local rules. (We’re going to focus on the World Series distance but you can see the results for all the races over the weekend on the ÖTILLÖ website.)

The World Series distance race was 26,2k (16.3 miles) of total distance with 22,05k (13.7 miles) of mostly technical trail running and 4,150k (4,538yds) of swimming. The longest run was around 6k and the longest swim was 400m.

As we mentioned at the beginning, all three World Series races were stacked with some of the best athletes in the sport and the podiums definitely reflected that.

Women’s Team Podium:

1st Place: Team Envol Anna & Desirée (Anna Hellström and Desirée Andersson) 
2nd Place: Wild Swimrun West Coast (Therese Bergling and Evelina Järvinen)
3rd Place: ARKswimrun. (Helena Sivertsson and Kristin Larsson)

Mixed Team Podium:

1st Place: ARKswimrun (Ulrika Eriksson and Peter Oom)
2nd Place: ARK Swimrun (Marika Wagner and Alexander Koller)
3rd Place: Team Envol Switzerland (Sabina Rapelli and Alexis Charrier)

Men’s Team Podium:

1st Place: Öckerö Rörläggeri (Adriel Young and Max Andersson) 
2nd Place: Kraken Swimrun (Pontus Lindberg and George Bjälkemo)
3rd Place: ARKswimrun 1 (Lars Ekman and Fredrik Axegård)

Overall, the weather was perfect for race weekend and the vibe of the entire event was one of celebration. This event has been a long time coming for Michael, Mats, and the rest of the ÖTILLÖ team and we’re super stoked that they are back to hosting events! Congrats to everyone that raced over the weekend and we can’t wait to be at the starting line of this race at some point in the (hopefully) near future.

Special Race Report with Team Helena & Åsa

It was really fun to sit down with Helena Bjälkemo and Åsa Ehrnholm the day after they raced the World Series distance race to get their take on how it all went down. (If anyone thinks that Helena’s last name sounds familiar it is because the reigning men’s world champion and two-time guest of the show, George, is her husband.) We’ve been fans of Helena and Åsa since we started following a bunch of Swedish Swimrunners on IG and their attitude towards training, racing, and the sport is a great representation of why the Swimrun community is the best!

We spoke with Helena and Åsa about their athletic backgrounds, how they became Swimrun partners, and how they trained (or didn’t train) for Utö during the pandemic. We also chatted with them about how their Utö race went, got the lowdown on the whole vibe of the race, and what is up next for them. We loved having them on the show and think that you’ll really enjoy this interview.

You can follow Helena and Åsa on Instagram.

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.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

-  Chip and Chris