A shipwreck changed her life … now she’s a pro triathlete

In 2014 Els Visser (pictured above on her way to a runner-up finish at Ironman Lanzarote in 2022) was hardly an athlete. She had played some tennis in high school, and during her medical school training she occasionally ran 5 km “just to feel like I’d done something,” she wrote on her sponsor Red Bull’s website last year. Having just finished the fifth of her six years of medical studies at Utrecht, Visser had just finished an internship in Bali. With a week off before she had to return home, Visser decided to utilize her newly acquired dive certificate and go on a boat from Lombok to Flores Island, “have a nice dive, then fly back to Amsterdam.”

The boat she was on hit a reef on the first evening, but after being pulled off the reef by another boat, the crew checked the boat and deemed it seaworthy. After a day spent snorkelling and hiking, during the night the boat started to sink – it turned out the crash into the reef had damaged the boat, causing a hole in the side of the boat.

The boat didn’t have the equipment to radio for help, and they were out of cellular service. The passengers were all on the deck wearing life jackets when a wave crashed into the boat and it went under. Visser was pulled into a small lifeboat.

Some of the passengers floated in the 26 degree water around the small lifeboat that could hold six people. Others sat on the roof of the sinking boat. When the sun came up, Visser could see an island in the distance. Sure she wouldn’t survive a second night in the ocean, Visser and a few others decided to try to swim for the island. What started as a group of five eventually became just her and a women named Gaylene from New Zealand. After over seven hours of swimming, they finally made it to the island … it was a deserted volcanic island they later learned was called Sangeang Api.

Wearing just her underwear, a t-shirt and a jumper, Visser and Gaylene found a bit of water, but would have to drink their own urine to stay hydrated through another night. The next day they were able to flag down a passing boat, which brought them back to a larger cruise ship. A search for the others initially proved fruitless, but they were able to alert authorities. Eventually all but two of the 25 crew and passengers were saved.

After retuning to finish school, Visser started running, which she found cleared her mind. She signed up for a half-marathon, then  a full marathon just over a year after the crash. She tried her first triathlon in 2016, winning the sprint-distance race in just over an hour. One of her colleagues at the hospital told her about Ironman racing, which inspired her to enter Ironman Switzerland in 2017. Still riding her bike in running shorts and running shoes when she started, she learned quickly. At the race in Zurich she finished fourth overall. Six months later she was racing as a pro, competing at Ironman Western Australia. In August, 2018, she won Ironman Maastricht-Limburg, qualifying for Kona, where she finished 16th.

Visser works with coach Brett Sutton and lives in Switzerland, where Sutton’s training camp is based. Earlier this year she won Ironman New Zealand, and last weekend managed a third-place finish at Ironman Vitoria-Gasteiz, despite almost calling it a day during the run.

Her race was done. Then her competitor convinced her to keep going to a podium finish

“The accident actually really helps me in difficult moments in races,” Visser wrote. “If I’m really in a bad patch and I think, ‘I can’t get to the finish line,’ I know my body and mind are both so strong and I can just keep going.”