American triathlon coach Jonathan Bruney (31) can count himself lucky: he recently survived an alligator attack. Bruney was grabbed during an open-water training at the Ironman 70.3 Augusta course, but managed to fight back and escape.
Bruney was swimming with a group of his athletes in the Savannah River in Augusta, a city in the state of South Carolina, east of Atlanta. The athletes were swimming the course of Ironman 70.3 Augusta – a race taking place on September 27 for which the group was preparing. Bruney dove into the water at the boat ramp next to SRP Park, the exact spot where the race starts on event day.
Bruney knew beforehand that there was a chance of encountering alligators in these waters and stated that he had even stood on a bridge before the session to inspect the water. “I would never put my athletes in danger, and the chances of an alligator encounter are extremely low.”
After swimming 900 meters, that chance turned out to be slightly higher than expected when an alligator was spotted 55 meters from the shore. The first athlete managed to steer clear, but a few seconds later, Bruney felt a “heavy impact”. “It was a huge blow to my right side. It felt like my elbow came into hard contact with something – like diving onto a sports hall floor.”
For a moment, Bruney thought he had swum into a tree trunk, until he realized an alligator had clamped onto his upper arm with both its left claw and its jaws. “I knew right away I had to get this thing off me,” Bruney said afterward. He grabbed the alligator by its head as quickly as he could and gouged his thumb into the animal’s eye. The alligator then released its grip and fled.
All the athletes climbed out of the water, where it turned out the bite was superficial, having mainly damaged skin and fat tissue rather than muscle. “It could have ended up much worse,” said Bruney, who considers himself to have won the “alligator lottery”. Bruney also shared that he plans to continue training in open water and will still compete in Ironman 70.3 Augusta.
