Some 20 years ago Michael heard about a drunken bet that four friends took on in the Swedish Archipelago.

Along with Mats Skott, Michael co-founded OtillO, initially an endurance event based on this original bet, that later evolved to become the OtillO World Series & World Championships.

OtillO translated to English is Island to Island.

Michael & Mats threw their heart, soul and passion into building the very special OtillO brand, and the sport of swimrun. When they parted company with the organisation in January 2023 it was hard to imagine OtillO without them.

Here we look at what's next on Michael's path, a brief look to the past, what swimrun can learn from adventure racing, and a glance at what could be.

Watch ⁠⁠OtillO - This Is Our Story⁠⁠ for an insight into how swimrun has evolved.

Apologies for the quality of the sound on my voice recording, fortunately Michael's audio is great, which is the main thing.

This podcast is brought to you by Mike Alexander, founder of WeSwimrun.

Our races:

New to it? Try our Swimrun Workshop.

Simon is a prolific swimrunner with a fresh & simplistic approach to swimrun gear. Among other things, we learn why he doesn't use paddles, or a watch.

Check out Simon's Outdoor Swimmer magazine here.

As promised here's some links to some swimrun FAQs/swimrun resources:

This podcast is brought to you by Mike Alexander, founder of ⁠WeSwimrun⁠.

Our races:

New to it? Try our ⁠Swimrun Workshop⁠.

A wide-ranging chat with OtillO Swimrun World Champion, Max Andersson, including a very brief insight into his early football career.

Thanks to Andy, Alex, John, Malcolm and Simon for the questions.

Follow Max here.

Check out our favourite swim coach here.

This podcast is brought to you by Mike Alexander, founder of ⁠WeSwimrun⁠.

Our races:

New to it? Try our ⁠Swimrun Workshop⁠.