Photo: The author giving his teammate Tomas Granberg a well deserved hug at the 2018 World Champs finish line. In front: women’s 1st place Kristin Larsson. Photo by Jakob Edholm / ÖTILLÖ.
If you’ve watched the World Championship live or recap on YouTube that probably got you fired up to sign up for a local swimrun race, an ÖTILLÖ World Series race or even the World Champs. Of all these the only one that is really hard to get entry into is the World Champs, which is quite natural. World Champs are open to non-elite, for sure, just like the Ironman World Championship or the Berlin Marathon is. However, there are only a total of 160 teams allowed.
If you are an elite or sub-elite athlete in something like triathlon, swimming, running, OCR or multisport and you are confident that your ability would place you in the top five or so of an ÖTILLÖ World Series event, your quickest option would be to enter one of those and go for direct qualification. To give you an idea that requires about a 2:50–2:55 marathon (and often good trail-running ability). You should also be able to keep about 1:20–1:25/100 m full equipment through the whole race. This year, each World Series race qualified 3 male teams, 2 female teams and 3 mixed teams. But spots roll down if one of the team members is already qualified. Some races have more competition, some less.
Non-elites with a sub 3:20 marathon, a decently swim and who are ready to travel have a good chance at a “ranking” spot. Your six best recent World Series or merit races (that’s ÖTILLÖ’s partner races) give you a ranking score which is added to your partner’s score to give a team score for the application. Also, there is the “7/24 Concept” which are spots for people finishing a whole lot of races, regardless of how they perform at the races.
If you are a famous athlete (or just famous), you could apply for a director’s choice spot. Previously these have been offered to ex-olympians, national elite runners, elite triathletes, music artists, early contributers to the sport, among others.
“Team Selection Ticket” is an option where you rely on sheer luck in a lottery. I personally hope they’ll remove this way of gaining entry in the future to instead favour athletes suitable to finish and do well in this very demanding race. After all, it is the World Championship.
Read more on earning a spot here.