Lviv multisport athlete Dariia Bodnar is the first woman to take on one of Europe’s toughest mountain ultra distances — the SwissPeaks Trail in the Swiss Alps. The race takes place in the canton of Valais, from the glaciers to the shores of Lake Geneva, and its main course is 640 kilometres long with a total elevation gain of 43,800 metres.
The SwissPeaks Trail is an extremely demanding Alpine ultramarathon that requires participants not only to be in excellent physical shape, but also to have immense endurance and psychological resilience. In the sporting community, Dariia, who specialises in ultra-long distances, is known as the ‘queen of hundred-milers’.
Dariia Bodnar is an environmental engineer from Lviv and an experienced trail runner. She has competed at two World Trail Running Championships and has repeatedly won and placed at Ukrainian and international ultratrails and multisport races. Her race record includes events such as Trail Carpathia, 100 Bukomiles, Skole Ultra Trail, Gorgany Race and Wenger Czech Adventure (team multisport race), 100 Miles of Istria (Istria 100 by UTMB), SwissPeaks Trail 360, The Montane Lakeland 100M, Adamello Ultra-Trail 100M.
“You know this is (I think) my 15th start over 100 miles. But this one is really the very peak of a trail runner’s dreams. Of course I’ll fight with everything I’ve got — you can’t reprogramme your character. But the main goal I’m setting myself is to get through it, understand the strategy and finish this race… so that one day I can come back again!)” — Dariia Bodnar
According to available information, the athlete has already covered more than half the route — around 340 kilometres — with the second part of the distance still ahead of her.
Sports authorities in the region are also expressing their support for the Lviv runner. Roman Khimiak, Director of the Department of Sport, Youth and Tourism of the Lviv Regional State Administration, stressed that 640 kilometres of mountain route is a goal that is hard even to imagine, and behind it lies great willpower and a love of sport and nature. He noted that Dariia is representing Lviv region with distinction on the international stage and wished her a successful finish and new achievements.
The route of Dariia Bodnar and the other SwissPeaks Trail participants can be tracked online on the official race service using her bib number 23. The athlete’s posts from the course are grouped under the hashtag swisspeakstrail_640km_BodnarD on social media.