Some people are just prone to bad luck and then there’s an Olympic Gold Medalist that has experienced the highest of highs and got close to experiencing the lowest of lows in a string of bad luck.
In an interview with Olympics.com, Martin Kirketerp, who is a sailor from Denmark who won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, admitted that this year he has both been struck by lightning and attacked by killer whales, all over a span six months.
The lightning strike was first as it occurred following a SailGP event in Singapore, where Denmark finished in second place.
“After the race, I helped sail the New Zealand boat back to the harbor, as they were attending the winning ceremony. Then a proper lightning [bolt] strikes the boat, and I’m just functioning as a human lightning conductor right there,” he said. “It was a very, very unpleasant experience, because it goes from zero to 100 in a split second. You just hope that it is ending soon and doesn’t accelerate further. You start asking yourself, where you will be in a few seconds. I was scared while it was on, I’d like to admit that.”
Kirketerp, who was touching a shroud when he was struck by lightning, described the pain of taking on an electric shock.
“You can just feel that it is tearing your whole body, and you are a little worried about what is happening. The positive thing is that it only lasts a few seconds. When it’s over, you can very quickly feel that the ticker is still ticking. I was still there. It’s over in a flash, but while it’s on, it’s intense. I couldn’t feel my arm after. I had no contact with my arm at all, but at the time it didn’t matter”.
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After doctors evaluated him, Kirketerp was released from the hospital with just some lingering back pain.
If that wasn’t bad enough, then came the killer whales when Kirketerp participated with Team JAJO in The Ocean Race.
“We could see some big fins approaching on the horizon. A family of killer whales came to our boat – two adults and their baby – and they wanted to play with us a bit. We were mostly annoyed that now the racing stopped. We took down the sails and tried to lay still, and we could see our competitors sailing past us and around the killer whales,” Kirketerp said. “They came over to lay next to the rudder and gave it a good beating once in a while. They didn’t come with full force and smash into it, because then it would brake right away. But it is still a very large and heavy animal, so when they give a slap with the head to the rudder, the entire boat shakes. I was very afraid that the rudder would crack, but I wasn’t afraid of sinking.”
At 40 years old, Kirketerp’s Olympics days are over, but he is still competing in sailing competitions across the world.
Being hit by lightning and attacked by killer whales would get anybody to change their life, but the Gold Medalist loves what he does and clearly has a passion for it, no matter how dangerous things may get.
If lightning and killer whales can’t keep him off the water, then nothing will.
