Jonathan Bruney thought he was preparing for an Ironman. Then, somewhere in the Savannah River, his training session took a terrifying turn. A sudden impact sent pain through his arm, and moments later, he realized an alligator had him in its jaws.
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The 31-year-old was leading his athletes through an Ironman 70.3 Augusta training session on Sunday when a 4-to-5-foot alligator suddenly slammed into his right side and clamped onto his upper arm. For a split second, Bruney thought he had hit a submerged log.
Then he saw what was actually holding him… The pain arrived quickly, but so did instinct. Bruney grabbed the animal’s snout and pushed his thumb toward its eye.
“I just knew the eyes were what you should target,” he told WRDW. “I put my hand on the snout, reached up and pushed my thumb into his eyeball, and he released.”
The alligator let go, giving Bruney just enough time to think about the people behind him. He immediately shouted for his athletes to get toward the docks and out of the water.
Bruney was left with a deep wound on his upper arm, but the situation could have been far worse. Doctors later determined that the bite had mainly damaged skin and fatty tissue rather than muscle, although the injury required stitches.
Getting Bruney out of the river was only the beginning. Matthew Davis, a fellow triathlete and wilderness first responder, quickly switched from training mode to emergency mode. Davis tore the cord from Bruney’s swim buoy and turned it into a makeshift tourniquet. He tightened it around the injured arm while warning Bruney that the pressure would hurt.
“I squeezed as hard as I could, and I could watch the bleeding stop as we applied the tourniquet,” Davis recalled.
With no phone immediately available, the group had to improvise again. They knocked on doors along the riverfront, but nobody answered. Eventually, they reached the street and found a man walking his dogs, who called 911.
That sequence of decisions reflected the same mindset Davis uses in his own training: assess the problem, act, and move to the next step. It helped keep the frightening situation from spiraling.
For Bruney, however, the strangest part may be what happened afterward. Despite the attack, he has no intention of abandoning the race he had entered the river to prepare for.
Jonathan Bruney advised to stay out of the water
Bruney has been told to avoid swimming for roughly three to four weeks while the wound heals. That rules out further open-water preparation for now, but not the Ironman 70.3 Augusta itself, scheduled for September 27.
“No swimming for three to four weeks, but we’ll be back out there on race day,” Bruney said. “Hopefully in the middle of the group, maybe not in the front for the swim at least, and try to make it a great day.”
The coach had already known there was some possibility of encountering wildlife in the Savannah River. Before the session, he had even inspected the water from a bridge and believed the chances of an encounter were extremely small.
That calculation changed dramatically when one athlete spotted an alligator near the riverbank. Moments later, Bruney, who was ahead of the group, felt the impact. The attack has not erased his responsibility toward his athletes, either. Bruney joked that the incident had reinforced something he tells them through his coaching.
“I told my athletes: I am a coach that will fight off and take a gator bite to protect you and make sure you’re having a successful swim.”
His determination is hardly new. Bruney built his own endurance career from a 6:45 Ironman 70.3 finish to a 4:22 personal best and eventually qualified for the Ironman World Championship. He also founded the Charlotte Ironman & Tri Club, bringing together more than 200 endurance athletes.
That background helps explain why one terrifying morning in the river has not changed his plans. For Bruney, the race remains on the calendar; only the route to the starting line has changed.
Wildlife officers searched the area after the attack but did not locate the alligator. Meanwhile, the incident serves as another reminder that athletes training in open water are sharing that environment with wildlife.
Bruney will now have to trade his swimming sessions for patience. But when race day arrives, the coach who once fought his way free from an alligator plans to be back at the starting line… this time with considerably more respect for what might be beneath the surface.