Kelowna, B.C., ultra-endurance athlete Nick Pelletier has called it quits halfway into his journey across the fraught waters of the Molokai Channel.
“I had to get pulled from the swim (because of) jellyfish stings, and I took on so much water in my lungs,” Pelletier said in a clip posted to his social media, showing dozens of abrasions he said are caused by jellyfish stings.
“I’ve said it before when I failed and I will say it again, I will be back. I don’t know what discipline it will be in, but it will be big. So, thank you all for the support but stay tuned.”
Pelletier started swimming the 42-kilometer stretch between the islands of Molokai and Oahu at around 9 a.m. Monday.
He had successfully made it through nighttime darkness, powerful ocean currents, and an abundance of marine life before his team called an end to the journey, according to his social media account, through which he’s been documenting his journey.
Today, he said he’s frustrated by the end of that challenge.
But when he spoke to Global News in February, he pointed out that he learned just as much if not more from his losses than his successes.
It took him three attempts before he finished the Okanagan Lake swim, for example.
“It just made me a lot better swimmer because if I were to squeak it out the first time, I wouldn’t have learned all the lessons and done all the things that got me to (this) point,” he said.
“It’s just been trial and error and a good coach helping me with technique and stuff, at the start.
“Now it’s just basically being like a mindset to keep pushing and pushing and pushing.”