First Australian woman finishes Oceans Seven swimming challenge despite shark attack
Despite suffering a shark bite and battling grief, Joanne Norman completed the Oceans Seven challenge. (Supplied: Joanne Norman)
In short:
Joanne Norman, 55, is the first Australian woman to complete the global Oceans Seven challenge.
She swam more than 200 kilometres across seven of the world's most dangerous channels.
What's next?
Norman plans to tackle another 110km challenge later this year.
Joanne Norman always knew undertaking the Seven Oceans swimming challenge would not be easy.
Warning: This story contains an image some readers may find distressing.
The marathon event involves swimming more than 200 kilometres of open water in the world's seven most dangerous channels.
What she did not count on was being attacked by a shark and coping with the death of her father along the way.
This month, the former Geraldton woman became the 43rd person to complete the gruelling Oceans Seven — and the first Australian woman to do so.
Joanne Norman started the challenge swimming the English Channel in 2021. (Supplied: Joanne Norman)
Norman said she started the challenge five years ago as a tribute to turning 50, following a ferry ride from France.
"I was looking out on the water and I thought, 'You know, I could probably swim the [English] Channel,'"she said.
After two years of training, Norman ticked off the first of what would become seven gruelling channel swims.
She finished the final 41km leg near Hawaii in 14 hours and 15 minutes — but it was not her first attempt.
Shark attack in Hawaii
Having made the difficult decision to swim the Molokaʻi channel last year while her dad was in palliative care, Norman's first effort was thwarted when she was bitten by a cookiecutter shark.
Joanne Norman was bitten by a shark on her first attempt at the Molokaʻi Channel. (Supplied: Joanne Norman)
She underwent stomach surgery to repair a deep wound on her abdomen and spent six weeks recovering.
Meanwhile, her father died.
But despite everything, she remained positive.
"I'm a glass-half-full kind of person — it could have been worse, it could have been a much bigger shark,"she said.
Norman said completing the same channel a year later was nerve-racking.
"But I didn't want to let this fear cripple me," she said.
"I swam like 3 hours in the dark before the sun came up and I was never happier to see the sunrise."
The Ocean Sevens includes channel swims on four continents. (Source: Datawrapper)
The mother-of-four said her family was both proud and relieved when she finished the final swim.
"Going back to Molokaʻi after being bitten, I think that my kids, my husband, and probably my mum held their breath — the collective breath — for the whole 14 hours and 15 minutes."
Norman said it was amazing to be the first Australian woman to complete the global challenge.
"If you tried the Oceans Seven, you're a little bit like me — very nutty,"she said.
Joanne Norman is planning to swim 110 kilometres of United Arab Emirates coastline next. (Supplied: Joanne Norman)
Despite some "brutal" swims and coping with the grief of her father's death, she never doubted she would finish the Oceans Seven.
"I don't generally talk about failing, it's not something that I use in my vocabulary,"she said.
"It was just one swim at a time, 'Let's do one training block, let's tackle the next swim.'"
Each swim was a physical and emotional feat. (Supplied: Joanne Norman)
Norman, who now lives in Abu Dhabi, said she planned to take some time to rest before tackling her next challenge later this year — swimming 110km along the United Arab Emirates coastline.
"You never know what your limits are until you really test them," she said, "so this one, I'm really going to test them."