Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team vann VM i multisport

After going through the most painful hardships for four days, an hour and 56 minutes, the Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team, the Swedish Armed Forces’ own elite team, finished as winners of the World Cup in multisport.

It was the first time an all-Swedish team managed to win, now they were four hours before the second from Estonia in a competition with 92 teams on the starting line.

– Everything a team can do is put on its head. There are tough gangs from all over the world and 20-30 teams that have the chance to be up there, says Oskar Svärd.

But there were critical moments which threatened the Swedish victory.

The team’s captain John Karlsson ended up in a real chess period and had a tough time on the trekking distances during the more than 600 km long race.

– We were worried that John would go down too much and that he would not even be able to continue. He bit into something terrible. Then it is important that the rest of us also bite in, work for the team and help each other. Had it stopped there, we would have had to break.

It was known that the start would be in Monforte de Lemos and that the goal would be in La Coruña, the second largest city in Galicia in northwestern Spain.

But they had no idea what the track looked like.

– One and a half hours before the start, we received 51 maps and could see the length and hilly on the different routes. The first distance was twelve miles trekking with 5,600 meters above sea level, just such a distance is tough to get through.

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Swords looked fast that two more of the seven sections could be compared to “monster sections”.

– We would paddle nine miles and also cycle 220 miles. It was the stretches that stood out and we understood that they would be decisive.

Sword was the group’s navigator.

– It was just to hold the maps you needed on the first stretch and put the rest in the backpack. Then it was just honking and driving but you also have to be smart, a too tough opening can ruin the whole competition.

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There was no support along the stretches without the participants were forced to carry everything necessary in a six- to seven-kilo backpack.

– When John got so tired, we had to take his stuff too, it was a challenge.

The team had to carry some safety equipment with them.

– If you wanted to sleep, you had to carry stuff for it.

The first night, the team skipped sleep.

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On the second leg it began to hail and the landscape changed from green to white.

– It got freezing cold, we were taken to bed because they had said that the temperature would be around ten degrees at night and 15-20 during the day, but it was only a couple of plus degrees when we reached the top. The southern Europeans probably thought it was really cold.

The team had decided that they would sleep on stretch three, which was about kayaking. They divided 16 hours of paddling into two periods.

– We wanted to sleep in the middle of the night and had calculated that it would be in the middle of the stretch. We tore off all our clothes and put on sweaters and underwear and then we crawled into a thin, thin sleeping bag.

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After two hours of sleep it was time to start paddling in the dark again.

– It was just to step up, you felt quite bruised but it was just to put on the clothes again, wet and goa, and start paddling.

The stretch contained several ponds where the team was forced to lift the kayaks ashore, the longest stretch of land was 13 kilometers.

– We had small carts with wheels with us so we could pull the boats, says Svärd.

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Third night, during the long distance on a mountain bike, it cost you to stick around with another hour and a half of sleep.

At each check, the team was told the position at the top at the previous change and it was quite early clear that they took turns at the top with a Latvian team.

At the end of distance five, the Swedes managed to connect the victory grip.

– It was an orienteering distance that we set perfectly and they blocked, plus that they slept a little too little and neglected the food. They lost an hour and a half on a mile, from where we left, Svärd states.

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The competition ended with just over three miles of running.

– The last 15 kilometers it was asphalt and you were completely destroyed. After four days, you should run with a heavy backpack, it was 25 degrees hot and the asphalt just boiled.

The margin of victory was written to four hours.

– We had a cruel end to the competition. Even though we only slept three and a half hours in four days, we felt joy and understood that we had great chances to win.

But it was not until all four were over the finish line as Svärd dared to take the victory.

– It is enough for someone to break the leg, injure themselves so that you can not get out or go completely empty, then you can be smoked. The legs look terrible, they were thorn bushes and it will take two, three months before the thorns come out, it’s that bad. At times the paths were completely overgrown and it was dark for twelve hours so we had to carry many headlamp batteries with us, but as soon as the sun rose, you perked up.

There were never any longer food breaks, you competed and ate at the same time.

– We ate sweets, bars and everything imaginable to eat. Caffeine tablets to keep us awake. We stayed in a small place and bought a sandwich or a croissant, it is important to get something to bite into and not just eat that slimy sugar. I usually say that I love chocolate, but after three days you are not very hungry.

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To get started the quartet must consist of at least one man and one woman.

In the Swedish Armed Force Adventure Team, Svärd, who is an officer at Ing2 in Eksjö, competes together with John Karlsson, Karlsborg K3, Malin Hjalmarsson, from the Life Guards in Stockholm, and Emil Dahlqvist, the Dala group in Falun.

Everyone must reach the finish line to have a chance to win.

Oskar Svärd has met many sportswomen but none like Malin Hjalmarsson.

– She’s like a machine. She is 40 years old and works as a captain in the Life Guards, I am very impressed by Malin’s efforts.

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Total climbed the team 17,500 altitude meters.

– It’s like going up to the top cabin on Åreskutan seventeen and a half times, we have taken so many altitude meters during this competition, I think it stands out, it was hardly a flat track.

The winning team, abbreviated Safat, started in 2014 and has previously come third and fourth at the World Cup. Oskar Svärd has only been involved for the past two years and you must be employed by the Armed Forces to compete in Safat.

– We train together for three days every other month and also in each place where we work, there will be a lot of training.

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Oskar Svärd, 45 years old, has won the Vasaloppet three times, most recently in 2007, been second twice and third once. During a 13-year period, he was never worse than nine.

– To win the Vasaloppet, very small details are decisive. Here you have to be so wide, you have to paddle right, be able to sleep and physically this is more challenging. But you are not at the forefront of anything, my oxygen uptake is lower than ten years ago.

He does not want to compare the World Cup victory with his victories in the Vasaloppet.

– I have lived with the Vasaloppet all my life. When you compete individually, it’s just me, just me. Now it’s a team and you have to help each other, if someone fails you can not shit in it. When you win as a team, it is very big, everyone must succeed.

The victory in the Adventure Racing World Championships was celebrated with strawberry ice cream.

– But I just wanted to lie down and sleep, says Oskar Svärd.

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