An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres. Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of 31 miles (50 km) to over 200 miles (320 km). 50k and 100k are both World Athletics record distances, but some 100 miles (160 km) races are among the oldest and most prestigious events, especially in North America.
Ida Nilsson is a Swedish long-distance runner who also competes in ski mountaineering. In 2003 – 2006 she won a total of ten gold medals in Swedish championships in track & field and cross country running, plus two NCAA gold medals. After many years away from training Nilsson won the Swedish championship in ski mountaineering in 2016 and a couple of months later won the prestigious Transvulcania ultramarathon.
The Skyrunner World Series is an annual international championship of skyrunning and the official International Skyrunning Federation (ISF) race circuit for mountain running. Each year the Skyrunner World Series presents a global Sky Racing calendar, attracting mountain running athletes from almost every country.
Skyrunning is a sport of mountain running above 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where the minimum average incline is 6% over the total distance and at least 5% has an incline of 30% or more. The climbing difficulty does not exceed II grade UIAA. Poles, crampons, and hands may be used to aid progress. The governing body is the International Skyrunning Federation.
Kílian Jornet is a Spanish professional long-distance trail runner and ski mountaineer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest trail runners of all time, he has won some of the most prestigious ultramarathons, including the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, Grand Raid, ̍Western States and ̍Hardrock.
Tove Alexandersson is a Swedish orienteer, ski orienteer, skyrunner, trail runner and ski mountaineer. She has won a total of 19 gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and 10 gold medals at the World Ski Orienteering Championships. In 2018, she won the Sky Marathon event at the Skyrunning World Championships, in her second skyrunning race ever. In 2021, she won the combined discipline at the World Championships of Ski Mountaineering, and in 2023 she won a silver medal in the up and down discipline at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. She competes for Stora Tuna OK in orienteering and Alfta-Ösa OK in ski orienteering. Alexandersson holds the record for the number of gold medals in a row at the World Orienteering Championships, winning 11 in a row between 2018 and 2022.
Judith Wyder is a Swiss orienteering and ski orienteering competitor and runner. Her achievements include gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and the European Orienteering Championships, both individually and with the Swiss relay team.
Emelie Tina Forsberg is a Swedish athlete specializing in trail running and ski mountaineering. She has won repeated victories in different disciplines, including European and World Championships.
Skyline Scotland is a set of annual skyrunning races which take place on consecutive days in the mountains around Kinlochleven in Lochaber. The main races are the Mamores VK, the Ring of Steall Skyrace, the Ben Nevis Ultra and the Glen Coe Skyline.
Jasmin Karina Paris is a British runner who has been a national fell running champion and who has set records for the Bob Graham Round and the Ramsay Round.
Bruno Brunod is an Italian athlete, a bicyclist who began running late, when he was in his thirties. He is twice world champion of the Skyrunner World Series and holds numerous speed records for climbing and descending some of the highest mountains in the world, like the Matterhorn in 1995, broken only in 2013 by a professional 25 years younger than him, Kílian Jornet Burgada. As of 2016 his speed records for the Monte Rosa in 1997 and the Aconcagua in Argentina in 2000 remained unbroken. Brunod produces results like a professional athlete, but has retained the spirit and humility of an amateur, for which he is widely admired especially amongst fellow mountain runners.
In skyrunning, a vertical kilometer is an uphill mountain running race with an elevation gain of 1,000 metres. The Vertical Kilometer World Circuit also defines it as covering less than 5 km. Trekking poles, which are allowed as optional accessories, are often used in vertical kilometer races.
The International Skyrunning Federation (ISF) is the world governing body for skyrunning. The ISF today counts 41 Member nations. The Federation of Sports at Altitude (FSA) used to be the organization which governed and managed the sports of skyrunning. It has been replaced by the International Skyrunning Federation.
Christel Dewalle is a French female sky runner who claimed second place in the Vertical Kilometer at the 2014 Skyrunning World Championships.
Maite Maiora Elizondo is a Spanish female sky runner and trail runner, who won gold medal at the 2016 Skyrunning World Championships in SkyMarathon, the final ranking of Sky Extreme and overall title of the 2017 Skyrunner World Series and bronze medal at the 2015 IAU Trail World Championships held in Annecy.
The High Trail Vanoise is an international skyrunning competition held for the first time in 2016. It is held every year at the Val-d'Isère in the French Alps at the end of July or beginning of May. The race is part of the Skyrunner World Series.
The Vertical Kilometer World Circuit is an annual international circuit of vertical kilometer born in 2017 as a spin-off of Skyrunner World Series. The Vertical World Circuit announced the 2017 VWC calendar featuring ten races, including a new venue: Osaka.
Yuri Yoshizumi is a Japanese ultra runner and skyrunner. She won the Asian Vertical Kilometre Skyrunning Championship in 2016, placed second in the Vertical Kilometer World Circuit in 2019 and won a number of individual events including the 2019 Transvulcania Marathon and the Fuji Mountain Race in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Ekaterina Mityaeva is a Russian athlete specializing in trail running, skyrunning, mountain running and ultra running. She is a winner and prize-winner of the international competitions and Championships of Russia.
The Golden Trail Series is a series of international trail races.
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