Throwback Mixtape: Max Andersson
4/30/202645 min
Welcome to episode 330 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast.
A few weeks ago we did our in memoriam for Max Andersson. This week we are going back to the vault to share our first solo conversation with him, originally recorded on June 30th, 2022 — just a few months before he and Hugo Torment would go on to win every single ÖTILLÖ World Series race that year, set a course record of 7 hours and 1 minute at the World Championship, and become the first team ever to run the table in a single season.
This conversation is from Episode 130. Max talks about how he first got into swimrun in 2017 on a dare with a friend, at a time when he had never swum a proper freestyle stroke in his life. He talks about the process of going from complete beginner to world class athlete through consistency, coaching from Ko Lundin, and guidance from Oscar Olson. He shares what it was like to partner with Hugo, what draws him to the sport beyond the results, and how he sees swimrun continuing to grow.
What comes through in every minute of this is exactly what so many people have shared since we lost him in April. He was warm, generous, funny, and genuinely in love with this sport and the people in it. Competitive as anyone, but always in it for the right reasons.
We are grateful we got to know him. We hope this gives anyone who never got the chance a sense of who he was.
In memory of Max Andersson. Gone too soon. Our thoughts remain with his family and the entire swimrun community.
That's it for this week's show. If you have questions or want to reach us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube, and check out our website for swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more.
Chip and Chris
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMax Andersson· Guest0:00
I'm really competitive. I want to be, be, be in top of races, absolutely. But, but for me, it's also very important to, to have fun, uh, along the way, have a good journey.
Chip· Host0:10
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Low Tide Boys, a swimrun podcast. I'm Chip.
Chris· Host0:24
And I'm Chris, and this is episode 330 of the show. We have our fourth edition of our throwback mix tape series coming your way, and we thought we would go back to our first solo conversation with Max Andersson. As many of you already know, he passed away tragically, uh, on April 6th, and we've been thinking about him a lot. We did an in memoriam a few weeks ago, and we thought, you know what? Why don't we, why don't we share our conversation with him- Yeah ... from 2022?
Chip· Host0:55
Yeah, and 2022 was an amazing year for Max and Hugo Tormento as team, uh, Arc Swimrun. Uh- Yeah ... they, uh, I think the only word to use is dominant. Uh, they completely dominated every race, uh, that year, winning every World Series race, including the Otillo, the Swimrun World Championship. Not only did they win that wa- race, they also set a new course record that still stands- Shattered ... shattered by- 30, 30-something minutes ... 30-something minutes.
Chris· Host1:24
Yeah.
Chip· Host1:24
Uh, coming in at seven hours and, like, one second [laughs], so