The first swimrun race was the Swedish
Ö till ö (stylized as
ÖtillÖ), a course across 26 islands. 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 teams managed to finish within the time limits. They were: Petri Forsman, Ville Niemelä and Johan Hasselmark, Martin Sahlen ref). 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 for ÖtillÖ 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. In 2011 the style of racing picked up the name "swimrun", given by Erika Rosenbaum, one of the ÖtillÖ Swimrun World Championship podium finishers. in Switzerland and Amphibianman in Italy (this was the first outside of Sweden done on May 10, 2014). Aquaticrunner 2014 was also the first Individual/Solo Swimrun done in the world and it was realized by Matteo Benedetti. In 2014, the organisation World of Swimrun / Worldofswimrun (WoS) was formed. World of Swimrun is a neutral, independent and global non-profit organisation: By swimrunners - for swimrunners, with a mission to bring swimrun to everybody and provide the latest swimrun news. World of swimrun also hosts the biggest data source on available and active races in the world. In 2015, the world's first Ultraswimrun, the Stockholm Archipelago Ultra Challenge (SAUC) took place, and is considered the current (2019) toughest available swimrun race challenge in the world, stretching over some 250 km. SAUC is also the official Ultraswimrun open challenge. In 2015 the swimrun started in Russia with Individual and Team forums. In 2015, the World Swimrun Federation was founded in Switzerland Constitutional meeting (Canton Ticino Switzerland - official language: Italian). The objective of WSRF is to discipline, organize, promote, advance and spread out the sport of Swimrun throughout the wide world in Individual/solo and Team formula. The scope is to promote and develop swimrun sport in the world in accordance with the principles set out by the
Olympic Charter and in protection of physical and mental health of athletes, fighting doping in all its forms. The organisation is independent and global non-profit. In 2016, Swimrun Australia became the first swimrun not only in Australia but also the southern hemisphere, bathing the way for the growth of swimrun in the Asia-Pacific region . Most swimrun races are completed in teams of two. Starting from 2016, there are some individual/solo swimrun in the world: starting from Italy (Italian Swimrun series 12 race
swimrun italy), now 17 race, Love Swimrun, Canarie Swimrun and Portugal Swimrun, in Individual and Team forums. In 2017, In France, swimrun is linked to the FFTRi, as it is in Finland. Others individual/solo swimrun on 2017 was Canada Canaqua Swimrun and Uruguay Swimrun. In Africa, Torpedo Swimrun held the first swimrun race on the continent in Cape Town on January 15, 2017. The race covers 16 km of Cape Town coastline, with swims in the South Atlantic and running at the base of
Table Mountain. In Japan, Kaiyo Swimrun held the first swimrun race in Asia on May 27, 2017. In 2018, the world's first book on swimrun was published
Swimrun – The Guide to Swimrun Training & Racing, Stockholm, Sweden (2018).In 2018 Aquaticrunner was the first individual World Championship with 22 nations represented and 250 athletes qualified. The world qualified was done in Fuerteventura, Madeira, Canada, Russa, Uruguay, Belgin, and Italy. In Japan, a new swimrun race, called Marunuma Swimrun was held which contained regular and sprint distance. The international focus has been growing in the last years, and on December 28, 2018, there are more than 500 known races in the world, in 24 countries and on 5 continents. In 2018, Ultra Swimrun ALPS consisted in a run, swim D+, passing through to the alpine lakes and is the swimrun race with the maximum total elevation. Swimrun debuted on March 30, 2019, in Brazil and became the first race in tropical countries. Búzios Swimrun changed to Hero Swimrun in honor of the effort of the athletes. With 200 athletes, the distances were (solo / teams) and (teams) in 7 different terrains and 17 beaches. The event also carried out environmental actions before the race, collecting of garbage in partnership with the Swedish Embassy in Brazil and with the local government. In 2019, Swimrun U.S. Series Ignite Swimrun became the first Swimrun series in the United States of America with 5 races using the individual/solo formula. Aquaticrunner was the second individual W.C. with 19 nations represented. In 2020, with the big pandemic situation, some races were held anyway, Otillo Engadin was done, Aquaticrunner was the Italian Championship and Fuerteventura Swimrun assigned the World Cup in Half Category, but 80% of the races were canceled. In 2021, 2022 and 2023 ÖtillO, The Swimrun World Championship was done with many qualifications. Aquaticrunner was the third Solo World Championship with more than 20 nations represented and 240 athletes qualified in many countries (Fuerteventura, Madeira, Uruguay, Hungary, Belgium and Italy). On October 8th 2025 in Wollongong (Australia), during the XXXVIII Congress, the Swimrun activity was added on the World Triathlon Federation, with
Individual and Team events. ==Swimrun characteristics==