Meet the Manchester student heading from Eurovision Iceland to the Paris Paralympics

When world record breaking swimmer Már Gunnarsson is not at the Royal Northern College of Music studying for a BMus, he’s in the Olympic-sized swimming pool across the road training for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.

World record-breaking swimmer Már Gunnarsson

He’ll be competing in the 100-metre backstroke this August for his home country of Iceland and is currently spending about 12 hours a week in training with Manchester’s top swimmers at Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Már, who was born with a genetic sight disorder, believes there are very few places in the world where he could pursue both of those ambitions in such world-class facilities.

“I would say this area is a little bit designed for me!” he says.

“People that know me well know that I want to be spontaneous and don’t like planning things too much in advance.

“So, for the environment here in Manchester to permit me to combine these two passions of mine – to have the conservatoire here and literally across the road the Manchester Aquatics Centre – is absolutely amazing.”

Paris Paralympics 2024

Már is a former 200-metre backstroke record holder – and that’s not his only extraordinary achievement.

In 2022, he entered Iceland’s hunt for a Eurovision song and made it into the final with his sister Ísold Wilberg,  – eventually coming third.

He even got the idea for their song, Don’t You Know? while he was in the pool.

You can see Már Gunnarsson on the piano below.

“It actually came to me underwater!” Már (24) recalls.

“At the time, I was going through some typical and annoying dating drama, and I was feeling kind of down.

“I remember diving into the swimming pool and, as I was underwater, the melody and lyrics to the chorus of the song came to me. I often get all kinds of ideas when I’m swimming and sadly I don’t have any method to record them, but sometimes I remember them.”

Már’s musical journey

Már’s formal music training began at the age of six when he and his family moved to Luxembourg. He trained with classical Russian pianist Dina Ziatdinova and Már discovered a passion for swimming when the family moved back to Iceland six years later.

Since then, he has competed in swimming competitions worldwide, including in Mexico City, London, Tokyo, the USA, and extensively in Europe.