Swimrun Ranking Systems

Updated December 2024

There are several swimrun ranking systems that you can check to see how you rank against other competitors. Which is best? How are the rankings calculated?

Read on to find out more!

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British Swimrun

April 2024

British event organisers 'Gritty Rascals' announced that the 2024 Swimrun season sees the introduction of a new ranking system for Swimrun in the British Isles, developed by British Swimrun - a not-for-profit venture that will promote and develop the sport of Swimrun across the British Isles.

Here is the press relese from Gary at Gritty Rascals;

"The ranking system has been developed in collaboration with and has the support of, the vast majority of the Swimrun event organisers in the UK.

All the details are available on British Swimrun's website, but a brief overview follows:

There are 4 distance categories: Short; Middle; Long and Ultra. Individuals and teams gain points for each affiliated race they finish. There are separate categories for female and male individuals, along with female, male and mixed teams.

The ranking system is designed to reward both participation and performance. You can find all the details of how points are awarded and of the distance categories at https://britishswimrun.org/british-rankings/. You can see a list of the affiliated races and their distance categories here.

If you finished a Swimrun in 2023 then you can see the points you'd have been awarded (based on publicly available results) in the Solo Pilot Rankings and Team Pilot Rankings. If you'd like to participate in the 2024 season's rankings then you'll need to register for a free (for 2024 season) British Swimrun ID. You can register now here.

Along with other affiliated Swimrun organisers, we'll accept your British Swimrun ID even if you have already entered a race - you just need to share your British Swimrun ID(s) with us after registering. To make life simple, organisers will provide British Swimrun with your British Swimrun ID and points post-race.

We're really excited to support British Swimrun and the rankings, and hope to see some of our entrants at the top of the 2024 tables at the end of the year. You can gain ranking points at Swimrun Coniston in the Middle, Long and Ultra distance categories, while Swimrun Gower's races both sit in the Middle distance category (though there is a chance the Gritty race start may be tweaked to sit in the Long distance category), you can enter either event by following the links above.

Gary and the team at Gritty Rascals."

TSR swimrun ranking systems

TSR stands for 'The Salamander Ranking', and was developed by swimrun enthusiast Gilles in Stockholm, Sweden. It was promoted as being independent, transparent, and gender-equal.

After 8 seasons, from 2014 to 2022, Gilles is taking a break, and will not be running the TSR system in 2023/2024. However, you can see the rankings for recent years at the TSR website.

The Salamander Ranking logo

MySwimrunChampionships
swimrun ranking systems

The MySwimrunChampionship ranking system monitors fewer events than TSR, BUT it includes ALL race distances at any included event.

You score points as a solo competitor or as a team.

There are 2 age groups; either below 45 years or over 45 years (solo), and for a team it's the combined age, either below 90 years or above 90 years. So, if you are a little more mature (like us!) you can see how you compare to similar-aged swimrunners.

The events included in the MySwimrunChampionship are;

Troia, Portugal, 21st April 2024
Jablines, France, 4th May 2024
Costa Azahar, Spain, 2nd June 2024
Love Swimrun, North Wales, U.K., 15th June 2024
Backwaterman Swimrun, Vienna, Austria, 23rd June 2024
Rheinsberg, Germany 1st July 2024
Kuopio, Finland, 13th July 2024
Immeln Swimrun, Sweden, 17th August 2024
Dyfi X, Wales, U.K., 8th September 2024
Swimrun Cape Cod, USA, 21st September 2024
Swimrun Cote d'Azur, France, 20th October 2024
Hydra Swimrun, Greece, 1st to 3rd November 2024

The ranking system includes Sprint, Half and Full (long) distance races, where appropriate. These events have been chosen for their varied locations through Europe, with stunning scenery and unique cultures and cuisines.

For 2024, three of the events listed above will be chosen to be the Championship races. To enter, you will need to have collected enough points through the 2023 season events, OR win your age group in one of the qualifying events.

To check your ranking, visit the MySwimRunChampionships website.

The events

Troia, Portugal, is run by the Swimrun Portugal Series. It's the first event of their season, and is on the 21st April 2024. There are 2 distances; the Sprint at 18.3 km, and the Standard at 26.5 km.

For more information, visit the Swimrun Portugal Series website.

Jablines-Annet is one of the 12 leisure islands of the Iles-de-France region. There are 3 distances on offer, the Sprint at 6km, Short at 11.8kn, and Long at 23.6km. All 3 distances are open to solo and teams.

For more information, visit the Swimrun Jablines website.

Costa Azahar is in Spain, at Oropesa del Mar in Catalunya. They have three distances; A Supersprint at 7.5km, a Sprint at 9.5km, and a Half distance at 16km. Again, all three distances are open to solo competitors and teams.

For more information, go to the Swimrun Costa Azahar website.

Love Swimrun North Wales is in the U.K., at Llanberis, below the peak of Mount Snowden. There are just the two distances here, a Sprint event at 6km and the Full event at 16km.

For full information, have a look at the Love Swimrun Llanberis website.

Backwaterman Swimrun in Austria takes place just north of Vienna, in the Waldviertel area. The swim sections take place in the Ottenstein reservoir, so it's fresh water (not salt) and it's flat!

There are 4 races here; The 'Trial' at 10 km total, the Sprint with 15 km, the Half distance at 25 km and the Full (Marathon) at 35 km.

For more information visit the Backwaterman website.

The Swimrun Rheinsberg event takes place in Germany, not far from Berlin. This is a big event with 4 races; Youth, Supersprint, Sprint and Half Distance. It all happens on Sunday 25th June 2023.

The Youth event uses a short course of 900 metres. Racers aged 11 to 13 complete one circuit of the course. The 14 to 15 year olds do 2 circuits, and the 16 to 17 year olds do 3 circuits.

The Supersprint race has a total distance of 5.4 km, of which 1 km is swimming. The Sprint distance is a jump up at 13 km total with 2 km swimming. Finally, the Half Distance is almost double the distance at 25 km total of which 3.5 km is swimming.

For more information visit the Swimrun Rheinsberg website.

The Kuopio swimrun event is in Finland, and there are three distances that you can choose. The shortest is the Short at 15km. The middle distance event is the Long at 25km. Finally there is the monster Ultimate at 53 km. All three distances are open to individual competitors as well as teams.

For more information, visit the Kuopio website.

Swimrun Immeln in Sweden also uses a lake for the swims. There are 3 race distances; The Short at 7 km with just 800 metres of swimming, and is open to solo competitors as well as teams; the Middle distance covers around 17 km in total with 2.7 km of swimming, teams only; and the Long distance covers a total of 33 km with 5 km of swimming.

For more information visit the Immeln Swimrun website.

Cape Cod, USA has two race distances, a Short event at 4.75 miles and a Medium distance at 11.5 miles. There are plans for a Long distance event in 2025.

For more information about this USA event, visit the website!

Swimrun Cote d'Azur is in the south of France, near Nice. There are 3 distances here. The Short distance covers 8 km in total with 2 km of swimming. The Medium distance is 17 km in total with 3.4 km of swimming. The Long distance involves a total distance of 30 km, of which 5 kms is swimming.

At all distances you can compete solo or as a team. There is a limit of 50 solo competitors and 100 teams for each race distance.

For more information visit the Swimrun Cote d'Azur website.

The last event is on the amazing island of Hydra, in Greece. This is run by Trimore Events in November. There are 3 races distances; the shortest is called the Initiation race with a total distance of 12.8 km of which 2 km is swimming. The middle distance race is called the Core swimrun which covers a total of 23.4 km of which 3.65 km is swimming. The longest race is called the Advanced swimrun, at a total distance of 38.7 km of which 4.8 km is swimming.

For more information visit the Hydra Swimrun website.

Ötillö Swimrun Ranking Systems

The Ötillö Swimrun ranking system is based on results over two years. It is a tool for Ötillö to select the teams that can apply via ranking to the Swimrun World Championship.

To increase transparency in the selection process for the Ötillö Swimrun World Championship, they created their Swimrun Ranking systems. All Ötillö World Series and Ötillö Merit races will generate points, no matter where you finish. With these points, you can apply for ranking at the Ötillö Swimrun World Championship.

The system is designed to be as fair as possible, and it is based on teams, not individuals. The system is a little complicated, to take several factors into account. The points are distributed based on the following criteria:

40 % of your points are based on your overall result in the race, no matter which class you are in
60 % of your points are based on your time in relationship to the average time of all finishing teams. This means that teams finishing very close together get very similar “time points” in relationship to their position.
The races have different weightings. The basic points are multiplied by a factor as follows: Ötillö World Series Races are multiplied by 1.25. Ötillö merit races are multiplied by 1.
Every team that finishes a race will be awarded ranking points.
Your points will lose 75 % of their value after 12 months, and after 24 months they will disappear completely.
Your 6 best results over the last 24 month period will count towards your ranking. Your most recent points may displace old points.
If you get a new partner then you are a new team!

The events organised by Ötillö themselves are in the following locations;

Uto in Sweden, the place where it all started, just 90 minutes from Stockholm.

Silvaplana, Engadin in Switzerland. A spectacular alpine location along the valley from St. Moritz.

Whistler, British Colombia, Canada. This is in the Coast Mountains, just 2 hours north of Vancouver.

Gothenberg in Sweden, on the west coast, and Sweden's second-largest city.

Casco Bay, USA. This in Maine, on the east coast of the USA.

Mackinac Island, USA, in the Great Lakes.

Uto Sprint Final 15k, the last 15 km of the original course.

Ötillö World Championship, covering an almost unbelievable 75 km over the original swimrun course.

Orcas Island, USA, in the pacific north-west of Washington state.

Cannes, in the south of France on the Mediterranean. Held in autumn, this is a surprisingly varied course.

Austin, Texas USA; Swimming in the Colorado River!

Ötillö Merit Races

Merit races are swimrun events held by another organiser, but you can earn Ötillö points at them. Points are awarded in 3 tiers;

Tier 1 allows for direct qualification to enter the World Championship race.
Tier 2 races award the winners in each category with a free entry to any Ötillö World Series event.
Tier 3 races award points only. Note that EVERY finishing team gets ranking points in all tiers.

There are just 7 races in 2024 that count as Merit Races, and they are;

New Caledonia, in the Pacific Ocean, in Lake Yaté. Includes the 42.2km merit race.

Gorges du Verdon (France) held by the Swimrunman company.

Tamega (Portugal), in the north of the country, held by the Swimrun Portugal Series.

Côte Vermeille France), in the Pyrénées-Orientales, with 5 races.

Västerås Swimrun (Sweden), a fast race over a lake achipelago which finished in a spa.

Swimrun Grands Lacs du Laffrey (France) , one of 4 events run by Swimrunman in France.

Swimrun Coniston, U.K., in the magnificent Lake District. Now orgasnised by Gritty Rascal Events.

We hope our guide to Swimrun ranking systems has been useful. Please contact us if you think we have missed something - thank you!