Anders Olsson, aka “Järnmannen” (the Iron Man) won the Alcatraz Classic, also referred to as “Swim with the Centurions,” a 1.5 mile swim from the San Francisco mainland to Alcatraz Island. The 9th Annual Alcatraz Classic: Swim with the Centurions™ was held on Labor Day, Sept. 4.

Olsson is a Swedish Paralympics and World champion in handicap swimming and lives by the motto: “Believe in yourself. Nothing is impossible.”

Olsson won gold in Paralympics in 2004 and 2008, and was the first swimmer without legs to enter the competition, and he told TV4 he was laughed at when he came to compete in the Alcatraz race. The water in San Francisco Bay is frigid and rough, but not only did Olsson outswim others who previously participated in the event and who have legs, but he even set a new record for the race. Anders Olsson lost his legs in the 1990s, and after a period of intense depression and morphine addiction he turned his life around in 2002.

Read more about Anders on his website:
www.andersolsson.se/blogg/