It wasn’t lengthy after Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson received the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path race in late September — with a big bandage throughout her brow from a fall on the identical course simply three weeks prior that required stitches — that she was off to Bormio, Italy, for a coaching camp with the Swedish nationwide staff, this time for ski mountaineering as an alternative of path working. The nationwide staff was spending two weeks excessive on the Stelvio glacier in preparation for a visit to the U.S. to attempt to qualify for the 2026 Olympic Video games in Italy. Whereas most athletes from the World Mountain and Path Operating Championships had been again dwelling enjoyable after a season of racing, Alexandersson was doing 10- to 20-second intervals on skis to construct velocity for a lot shorter races. Alexandersson quips in regards to the quick turnaround time and minimal restoration between sports activities, “It was good to get some snowboarding and never simply working. So a minimum of it’s some relaxation from working.”
Tove Alexandersson on her method to successful the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path in Canfranc, Spain. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Whereas Alexandersson was nonetheless considerably below the radar within the path working world earlier than her dominant win on the girls’s 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path — she was seventeenth general and virtually 34 minutes forward of the second-place girl — she’s been a world-class athlete in different sports activities almost her whole life. At 33 years previous, she’s received world championship titles in six totally different sports activities, starting from skyrunning to ski orienteering to snowrunning, and is at the moment tied for probably the most profitable foot orienteer with 23 world titles, 11 of them received consecutively. The problem in doing a wide range of totally different sports activities nicely doesn’t appear to faze her, and he or she laughs when she says, “I’ve finished all of it my life, altering between totally different sports activities.”
Whereas all of her different actions have taken the runner-up spot to orienteering to date, evidently perhaps the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path — maybe the primary path race that Alexandersson has actually made a precedence in her coaching — could be a turning level for her. In any case, she says, “A very powerful for me is to benefit from the coaching,” and when requested what her favourite sort of coaching is, she’s fast to say, “I actually prefer to run as much as mountain summits.” She provides, “Additionally, quick working.”
If Alexandersson’s win is any indication of what she will be able to do when she focuses quite a lot of days or even weeks on getting ready for a path race exterior of her different sport seasons, it’s simple to think about what else she might do.
Rising Up Orienteering
Whereas to the surface world, Sweden could be related to excellence in cross-country snowboarding, in line with Alexandersson, orienteering is the nation’s each individual’s sport, and one that individuals of all ages take part in. She says, “Each my dad and mom have been working orienteers since they had been children. So I grew up with orienteering, and I used to be in my first orienteering race after I was round one yr previous. Orienteering has at all times been in my life.” Alongside her household’s participation within the sport — one thing her grandparents additionally did, making it a very multigenerational exercise — Alexandersson additionally loved different sports activities, akin to cross-country snowboarding, biking, and working.
For these unfamiliar with orienteering, contributors obtain a map with a set of marked waypoints, usually in an space the place they’ve by no means been earlier than. They have to navigate to these spots utilizing only a compass, selecting their very own routes by the terrain. Most races vary from as quick as eight minutes to 2 hours. There are a handful of occasions all through the world which can be longer, and a few which can be held at evening.
Alexandersson’s brothers, one older and one youthful, had been additionally orienteers, and he or she credit her older brother for a few of her early success within the sport, saying, “I at all times needed to do the identical as him. So I used to be fairly early with every thing. I used to be in entrance already as a child.”
Alexandersson is fast to level out that whereas it was in the end orienteering that caught her full consideration, it actually might have been something. “I’ve at all times had this aggressive aspect, that I need to win races. I’ve additionally at all times actually favored to coach lots and problem myself, so I believe I might have ended up with some type of sport.”
Alexandersson reaching a checkpoint on the 2022 Orsa Grönklitt orienteering race. Photograph: Sven Alexandersson
Even early on, Alexandersson loved the multifaceted nature of orienteering, because it had each the bodily facet of transferring by terrain effectively and the mental aspect of taking a look at a map, visualizing what terrain regarded like based mostly on topographic strains, and making choices on the right way to transfer effectively from one spot to the following. Alexandersson says that as a baby, “I used to be actually centered on the orienteering method, and that was the half I loved most, studying the map to essentially perceive.” She goes on to elucidate, “I additionally walked lots within the forest, so I constructed up a extremely good base with orienteering method at an early age.”
Roaming round within the woods with a map and compass, Alexandersson by no means actually thought-about that she might develop into an expert orienteer. She says, “I believed that after highschool, I would wish to proceed my schooling and begin working.” However she discovered success within the sport early and by no means regarded again. When she was simply 16, she grew to become the 2009 junior world champion within the center distance occasion on the World Orienteering Championships and defended the title in 2010 and 2012. When the prospect arose to proceed racing, she went for it. “Every thing went so quick, and I took the chance to attempt to do it professionally. I received some sponsors and likewise some prize cash.” Sitting in a lodge room in Italy within the fall of 2025, coaching for the upcoming ski mountaineering season and relaying the story, she smiles when she says, “I actually get pleasure from life as an expert athlete. So yeah, I’m nonetheless right here.”
Throughout the winter months, ski mountaineering is simply one of many sports activities that Alexandersson races. Photograph: Sven Alexandersson
Even after greater than 30 years of going to occasions, Alexandersson remains to be devoted to the game, saying, “In orienteering, it’s so many particulars, so you’ll be able to enhance on a regular basis. I actually like that it seems like you’re by no means finished. You possibly can at all times be higher.”
Lure of the Mountains
It’s not that Alexandersson actively selected orienteering over path working; it was simply the game that she was immersed in every day. Whereas she lived in an space missing excessive mountains, she was fascinated by the thought of them. She says, “Once I’d been on trip someplace with excessive mountains, I at all times favored to run in them and climb them.” She says that when she was youthful, “I didn’t know that you may compete in working up and down mountains.”
However the orienteering race season stretched from April by October, with races a number of instances a month, and there merely wasn’t time to pursue path racing in any critical method. It wasn’t till she was 25 years previous that Alexandersson signed up for her first path race, the 2017 Limone Excessive skyrace. The mid-October occasion passed off after the orienteering season, and Alexandersson was on trip in Italy with some pals when she determined to enroll.
Alexandersson racing on the 2019 World Ski Orienteering Championships. Photograph: Sven Alexandersson
“I wasn’t ready for the race in any respect,” she admits. “My physique was completely destroyed afterward.” Nonetheless, she got here away with the win by almost 12 minutes within the 3.5-hour race after taking a number of falls on the ultimate descent. “I needed to go in a wheelchair for some days, and after I got here dwelling, I couldn’t stand on my legs in any respect for every week,” she says. “The thick pores and skin below the heels and below the toes was completely gone, and likewise my ankles had been tremendous swollen.” She goes on to say wryly, “After all, my legs and muscle mass had been destroyed as nicely, however I didn’t really feel that a lot as a result of I couldn’t use the muscle mass anyway as a result of I couldn’t stand.”
Coming from a lot shorter orienteering races, Alexandersson’s vitamin plan additionally lacked sophistication. She says, “I believed it will be sufficient to have two actually small gels, and I had no sports activities drinks or something in any respect, and I wasn’t consuming something on the assist stations.” Unsurprisingly, she says, “I used to be out of vitality ultimately.”
Whereas Alexandersson says that upon crossing that end line, she swore by no means to do a path race once more, it solely took her three days to start out trying on the calendar to see what occasion would slot in subsequent. Ever the scholar of sport, Alexandersson was decided to be taught from her errors and check out once more.
Alexandersson main the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path after the primary climb and descent. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
When she received the 2018 Ring of Steall Skyrace in Scotland the next yr, she’d skilled particularly for working within the two weeks main as much as the occasion and stated, “I had many extra gels with me so I might have vitality all the best way to the end.”
She additionally returned to the Limone Excessive skyrace that yr and received it once more.
Dabbling in Path
Even along with her success in path racing, Alexandersson stored her concentrate on orienteering. She says that whereas she knew path racing was extra in style on a world scale than orienteering, it wasn’t as in style in Sweden. Over the approaching years, she’d slot in a late-season path race when she might, successful occasions just like the 2020 Volcanoes Path 23k in Portugal, which was the Golden Path World Sequence finals for that yr.
In 2022, she was chosen as a part of Crew Sweden to compete on the Path World Championships Quick Path in Thailand, however was unable to race because of damage. In 2023, she was once more chosen to signify Crew Sweden on the World Mountain and Path Operating Championships, however the occasion — held in June in Innsbruck, Austria — was in the course of orienteering season, and Alexandersson was totally centered on the World Orienteering Championships later that yr.
Alexandersson successful the 2021 World Orienteering Championships Center Distance occasion. Photograph: Sven Alexandersson
Not desirous to threat damage or interrupt her coaching, she opted to race the shorter World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down race as an alternative of the longer Path World Championships Quick Path. Moreover, she was residing in Austria on the time, and the occasion required minimal journey. She says, “I used to be considering it will likely be good preparation for the World Orienteering Championships and it will likely be enjoyable to run on my dwelling floor.”
After putting second on the race, she says, “I used to be truly actually shocked. Afterward, I used to be like, ‘I ought to do it once more however have higher preparations and see how good I will be.’”
The 2025 Canfranc-Canfranc Marathon
Alexandersson took her preparation for the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path severely and went to Canfranc, Spain, the small host village nestled deep within the Spanish Pyrenees, for a coaching camp with Crew Sweden three weeks forward of the occasion to recce the course and get in some high quality coaching. Whereas out on the course, she began to note flagging, and after some Googling, Alexandersson found that the long-running Canfranc-Canfranc Marathon was occurring that weekend on the identical course.
With solely a little bit of hesitation, she signed up and says, “I used to be considering, ‘Is it good for me to run it or is it simply silly?’ However I used to be a bit curious to see how I might deal with the space as a result of I had by no means run such a protracted race earlier than. I used to be slightly bit nervous that I didn’t know what sort of ways I ought to have.” She goes on to elucidate, “I used to be considering that perhaps it may be good for me simply to check every thing and see the way it works, so I do know what to do.”
Alexandersson racing the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path with a bandage on her brow from a fall on the identical course three weeks prior. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
On race day, issues had been going nicely till the second descent, a steep slope down a ski space with tall grasses and many hidden rocks. Alexandersson took a tumble whereas main the race, slicing open her brow and bleeding profusely. She says, “My first thought was simply, ‘Now I’ve to give up the race. Why ought to I fall? I actually needed to run the entire course!’” When she determined that perhaps the reduce wasn’t as dangerous because the blood indicated, she received irritated on the state of affairs, considering, “I’m shedding plenty of time simply sitting right here making an attempt to cease the bleeding.” When she made it to the help station and into the again of an ambulance for medical care, she instantly requested if she’d be allowed to proceed. After inspecting her head and stitching her up — a course of that took below 20 minutes — the medical staff let Alexandersson head again out heading in the right direction, and he or she received the race with a brand new course file time.
She credit a few of her capability to recuperate shortly after the race to the autumn, saying, “I wasn’t going full velocity after I’d been within the ambulance. I took it slightly bit simpler on the final half.”
2025 Path World Championships Quick Path and Past
Alexandersson arrived firstly line of the Path World Championships Quick Path in distinctive form and led from the beginning, opening up a three-minute hole on the remainder of the ladies’s area by the highest of the primary climb, 6.6 kilometers (4.1 miles) with almost 1,500 meters (5,000 ft) of climbing. By the point she made it down the descent the place she’d fallen three weeks earlier — a stretch of path the place she admits, “I used to be cautious there and after I had no falls, I used to be fairly pleased considering, ‘Okay, a minimum of it’s higher than final time’” — she was virtually 20 minutes within the lead.
She ran strongly and constantly all through, and whereas she knew she had an enormous hole, she by no means let up. She says, “I had no issues or struggles in any respect. I don’t assume it might have been so a lot better.”
The 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path was the primary path occasion that Alexandersson devoted quite a lot of weeks of particular coaching towards. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The occasion has now sparked an elevated curiosity in path racing, and Alexandersson admits to having an curiosity in racing a number of the extra technical occasions on the path working calendar, together with Sierre-Zinal and the Zegama Marathon. However first, there’s the small matter of transitioning to skis and making an attempt to qualify Sweden for the ski mountaineering occasion on the 2026 Olympics in February. After which there’s orienteering season.
Alexandersson doesn’t appear to overlook a beat going from ending one main purpose to coaching for the following one. She says, “I simply like to be on the market within the mountains and simply be transferring and out on totally different adventures.”
And one can assume that when Alexandersson’s elite aggressive profession ultimately involves an in depth, she’ll be out within the forest with a map and compass, nonetheless collaborating in orienteering occasions and having fun with herself, prefer it all started along with her and her household.
Name for Feedback
- What’s it about orienteers that makes them such good path runners?
- What path occasions wouldn’t it be enjoyable to see Alexandersson line up for?
