The Adventure Racing World Series 2024 - A Year of Worldwide Adventure

In 2024 the series expanded to 74 races across the world, so there were only a few weekends in the year when ARWS racing was not taking place.

BENTONVILLE, AR, UNITED STATES, January 7, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 2024 was another bumper year for the Adventure Racing World Series, building on the explosive growth in 2023 under the leadership of CEO Heidi Muller.

In 2024 the series expanded to 74 races across the world, so there were only a few weekends in the year when ARWS racing was not taking place.

Regional races and championships took place on 6 continents, there were 12 World Championship Qualifier expedition races, and the racing year was completed when the 20th Adventure Racing World Championship was hosted in Ecuador.

Muller commented, “It’s been another incredible year and all of our Race Directors have worked so hard to provide teams with the opportunity to experience remote and beautiful places in their part of the world.

“It’s the passion and commitment to adventure racing, shown by race organisers, racers, volunteers, medics and media, which drives the ARWS. Every day I’m grateful for the privilege of working with the wonderful adventure racing family as we all strive to make our sport the best it can be.”

The ARWS Qualifiers gave teams the opportunity to race along beaches on the Great Ocean Road in Australia at The Legend XPD race, cross glaciers on volcano summits at Tierra Indomita in Chile, witness a total eclipse of the sun on the start line of Expedition Ozark, and cross the starkly beautiful sand dunes and rock canyons of the interior of Namibia.

Every race offered unique opportunities as teams stepped aside from their day-to-day lives to push their boundaries, expand their horizons and experience the live-in-the-moment intensity of expedition adventure racing.

The 20th World Championship was hosted at Cuenca in Southern Ecuador, where teams raced through the Andean hills and Amazonian forest. It was the second World Championship hosted by the Huairasinchi race and took place successfully in very challenging conditions, with drought causing regular power cuts and late course changes required due to extensive forest fires.

After an exciting race, 400team of France were crowned as the new Adventure Racing World Champions. They won after a packraft capsize and overcoming a one hour penalty to beat defending champions The Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team. It was the perfect comeback after the disappointment of a missed checkpoint at the 2023 World Championship in South Africa.

It was a popular win for a team which has raced in the ARWS for 15 years, competing in 30 events all over the world, winning races, but never previously the elusive world title.

“This is the culmination,” declared team captain Sébastien Raichon at the finish line. “My first experience was Raid in France in 2009 in the Verdon. All the memories of these years come flooding back—my teammates, the travels, the various races, the ARWS victories … I started realizing we could win in the final hours, and I cried on my bike. The emotion overwhelmed me.”

Thriving Regional Series

Regional ARWS races of 12-48 hours are increasingly popular and new races were added in every region in 2024. Regional championship races were held in Europe, Oceania and North America and the South America Championship in Uruguay will take place in a few weeks time. (It was pushed back by the timing of the World Championship.) 2024 also saw the first ARWS Brazil Series included within the South America region.

Team Cap‘Opale of France won from a field of over 100 teams at the European Championship at Raid Lowlands, Thunderbolt AR became Oceania Champions at the X-Marathon race and Team Canada Adventure made a cross-border raid to take the first ever ARWS North America title at the Two Rivers Adventure Race in the Pennsylvania Wilds. As regional champions all of these teams have won a place at the 2025 World Championship at Expedition Canada next September.

Teams at regional races win points in the ARWS regional rankings and for premier mixed teams of 4 these can be carried forward into the world rankings. The latest rankings update was in December, following the World Championship, and the Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team kept the world #1 position.

Media and Community

With a race always happening somewhere, and a dynamic and creative media community within adventure racing, ARWS media has gone from strength to strength.

The main ARWS channels (@arworldseries) combined with regional channels and a constantly updated YouTube channel, now with over 500 videos, received 6.2 million views and grew to 112,000 followers in 2024. Each race and team also has their own media and following, so adventure racing has continuous coverage to help attract new racers.

This year the ARWS also started the In Motion newsletter to keep race fans updated through their inbox.

At the end of the year Adrian Crane stepped down as Head Referee, a position he has held since it was created in 2019. In that time the number of races and referees has grown and developed under his guidance. In December Scott Alexander (UK) was appointed to take on the role for 2025, and he will be supported by a group of senior referees.

The ARWS Hall of Fame, which recognises those who have supported and participated in adventure racing for over a decade was also updated at the World Championship, adding 26 new members from 10 nations.

2024 was also the year adventure racing established its own, independent governing body, the International Adventure Racing Association (IARA) and ARWS was accepted as one of the first Associate Members. ARWS also supported IARA in its successful campaign against the actions of rogue organisation World Obstacle in its attempts to include adventure racing in a merger with World Pentathlon. (An action few in adventure racing were even aware of.)

Movie Magic

Finally, 2024 was the year the Adventure Racing World Championship was shown on movie screens and through streaming services worldwide, with the launch of the Hollywood movie, ‘Arthur the King’.

The story of the stray dog from Ecuador following the Swedish team Peak Performance for much of the 2014 World Championship in Ecuador, and then being adopted by Mikael Lindnord and his family, was made for the movies!

The film had an A-list cast with Mark Wahlberg starring as Lindnord, who was an Executive Producer and trained the actors, as well as keeping the presentation of an AR World Championship as accurate as possible.

There were special premieres for adventure racers around the world, with many attending in their race bibs and inviting friends and family along. Members of the team were active on podcasts, radio, TV and social media, and Lindnord promoted the film around the world. He attended a premiere in Bentonville as part of the opening ceremony of Expedition Ozark.

The movie release was a fantastic boost for the sport of adventure racing in 2024 and you can see an exclusive interview with Lindnord on the ARWS YouTube channel.

For more information on the ARWS, to see the race calendar for 2025, and to keep up with all of the news, follow @arworldseries and visit www.arworldseries.com. There is another action-packed, globe-trotting, life-enhancing year of ARWS Adventure Racing ahead!

Media Director
Adventure Racing World Series
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