Fjällmaraton (literally Mountain Marathon in Swedish) is a long distance race, considered one of the hardest and most important one-day mountain marathons in Sweden. The total route has a length of 43km (27miles) with a cumulative elevation gain of 2,100 meters and similar elevation loss. The race takes place between the mountain resorts Vålådalen and Trillevallen in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County since 2005. Until 2012 the race was known by the name Vértex Fjällmaraton, then AXA Fjällmarathon and from 2017 KIA Fjällmarathon depending on varying sponsors.
Over time additional races have been added to the original Fjällmaraton proper, currently:[1]
In 2012-2014 Ottfjället upp was a vertical race to the peak of Ottfjället, but this was replaced by Vertical K to the peak of Åreskutan in 2015.
The course has changed over time in different ways so course records are not listed here. The fastest male winning times have been under 3 hours 30 minutes and the fastest female winning times a little under 4 hours, so considerably slower than a normal asphalt marathon race.
Andreas Svanebo has won the race six times in seven starts. On the women's side Ida Nilsson has won four times in four starts.
Emelie Forsberg's first win in 2009 is widely cited, including on CNN. She had borrowed a backpack from a friend and brought a chocolate mud cake that she had baked. Before the last big ascent, she stopped for 20 minutes and ate the cake, got new energy and won the race. Two years later she was back, did not stop to eat en route and improved her time by 30 minutes.[2] [3] In 2014 the by then established world class runner Forsberg was back again and improved her time by another 30 minutes.[4]
| Year | Country | Man | Country | Woman | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Hanna Wikberg | ||||
| 2006 | Kicki Fransson | ||||
| 2007 | Therese Svensson | ||||
| 2008 | Maria Lundgren | ||||
| 2009 | Emelie Forsberg | ||||
| 2010 | Therese Svensson | ||||
| 2011 | Emelie Forsberg | ||||
| 2012 | Annika Billstam | ||||
| 2013 | Lena Gavelin | ||||
| 2014 | Emelie Forsberg | ||||
| 2015 | Ida Nilsson | ||||
| 2016 | Ida Nilsson | ||||
| 2017 | Ida Nilsson | ||||
| 2018 | Fanny Borgström | ||||
| 2019 | André Jonsson | Fanny Borgström | |||
| 2020 | Tove Alexandersson | ||||
| 2021 | Ida Nilsson |