1. What would be your advice to someone, like me, who has never done a swimrun race before but is considering it?
Like you, I am not a swimrunner at all. My advice would be to just bring a friend and try it out. Our Experience courses are short and fun and you can breaststroke and walk your way around them. You don't need any fancy gear, just get out and enjoy it.
2. What, to you, is the biggest strongpoint of swimrun as a sport? What is the biggest challenge?
The strongpoint is that it is such a natural and fun way of moving through nature and that the courses are as varied as the landscapes are. You can choose the location after what suits you best, hills or long tough swims, warm water or rougher conditions.
The biggest challenge is to get people from other endurance sports and people that just need a new challenge or hobby to discover swimrun.
The biggest challenge is to get people from other endurance sports and people that just need a new challenge or hobby to discover swimrun.
3. What's been your relationship with sports in your lifetime, do you have a sports background?
Yes, I've been in sports for my entire life. I've been doing orienteering and ski-orienteering. Ski-orienteering is a small sport and a mixture of orienteering and cross-country skiing. I did that at an international level until I was 25, so it's been a very big part of my background.
Photo: Jakob Edholm
4. How do you stay active in your day-to-day life?
I go skiing a lot, cross-country skiing, ski touring and alpine skiing. We have very free working hours, so if it's a sunny day, we can have a long lunch and go skiing during that time. When there’s no snow I run a lot in the mountains.
5. As a company, INCroatia works with a lot of incredible and inspiring women in sports, both as athletes and as part of the organization and logistics of sports events. You work closely with Michael [Lemmel] and Mats [Skott], who started Otillo, in race management. Do you feel any differences between yourself as a woman in the world of sports event organization and your male colleagues?
There is a big difference between me and my male colleagues, naturally, as they invented this sport and have so much experience in organizing Swimrun events. I’ve been in the company for two years now and I love working with them and the rest of our team. I learn a lot and I now get to develop this sport together with them which is very motivating.
I notice that some people treat me differently within the areas of race management that are typical male areas. Like course planning, marking and logistic planning for example. I never experience it when it comes to handling volunteers, entries or accommodation.
I notice that some people treat me differently within the areas of race management that are typical male areas. Like course planning, marking and logistic planning for example. I never experience it when it comes to handling volunteers, entries or accommodation.
6. How does it affect you?
Those typical male areas are the ones I enjoy working with the most and it is where my experience from my sporting background and previous jobs is. So, it motivates me in showing that I am good at that. Of course, it can be upsetting at times too.
7. What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of when it comes to your work at Ötillö?
I am very proud that I was a part of organizing our first competition in America. It's always a lot of work to take the competition to a new country, a new destination means a different culture and a lot of new people involved... I'm proud that we made it as good as we did, that it was a successful event and that everything went well in the end. That feels like a great thing to have been a part of.
