Local triathlete Jon Sammut fights for his future after tragedy struck during the Busselton Ironman

An Ironman athlete from Attadale is facing the prospect of never returning to professional racing after suffering horrific injuries while competing in this year’s Busselton Ironman. Jon Sammut will spend Christmas in hospital where he has been since December 1 after a “two-second lapse in concentration” during the bike leg of the race that might ultimately cost him proper function in his left leg. He has already endured seven surgeries in just 12 days at Royal Perth Hospital, where he was flown after accidentally pedalling into a bollard at 50km/h. Doctors have since confirmed the severity of his long list of injuries and told him the first surgery had effectively saved his life. “I snapped my femur as bad as you can,” Sammut said. “The orthopaedic surgeon said it’s one of the worst ones he has seen because one side of the bone was protruding through my hamstring and the other side was protruding through my quad outside my leg. “I also detached my ACL from my leg, and broke my tibia and fibula to similar extents. “My good leg, which is also not so good, has a grade 2 ACL tear and I will need to have surgery on that at some stage also.” Sammut told PerthNow he had put his head down briefly while on the bike as he attempted to chase down the leaders after a 3.9km swim leg. “I got on to the bike and started riding, I knew I had a bit of time to make up from the first pack who had come out the water,” the 27-year-old said. “I was moving up past some other triathletes, I made one overtake and then I saw the next person I was going to overtake so I put my head down to really put in an effort. “Then I had a two-second lapse in concentration and when I looked up I was pedalling straight for a bollard at a roundabout.” Sammut believes he was travelling about 50km/h when he smashed into the obstacle. “I came straight off the bike and I felt the full impact of the bollard hit my legs,” he said. “So I knew as I was coming down that I had damaged them quite severely but I remember thinking I need to protect my face and my head. “Then I tried to get up but I couldn’t feel my legs other than them being in a lot of pain. “But I could see my ankle was facing the other way and was underneath my other leg and I could feel I had a lot of bones misplaced. “The pain was unbearable, I was just screaming for the green whistle.” Mr Sammut believes the first surgery saved his life after his femoral artery was almost cut in the crash. Waking up that time was extremely emotional for him and his family, as they had been told that amputation was a real possibility. “When the green whistle had worn off and I had that first surgery, it was all very unknown,” he said. “My mum, dad and sister were all crying by my bedside worried what sort of functionality or physical enablement I will have after all of this.” The Aquinas College alumni had dreamt of representing Australia as an Olympic triathlete since he was nine years old. Sammut said he idolised his father, who competed in the Busselton Ironman every year. “I have devoted most of my time to training and racing since I was 18, when I was going through the junior ranks I always wanted to go to the Olympics and compete for Australia,” he said. He had recently been inspired to return to professional racing after taking a break to study and work full-time. “I started full-time work a couple years ago and had been following a close friend Nick Thompson’s journey into professional ranks in Ironman which was really inspiring,” he said. “I wanted to race alongside him and have some fun so for the last six to 12 months I have been training myself up while still working full-time to return to the professional ranks.” “In the last six months I managed to get some really good personal bests, I came fourth at the Sunshine Coasts 70.3, which was a massive result. “The following week I competed in the Sydney marathon where I did really well for Australia and a few weeks later I raced in Malaysia. “This race in Busselton was going to be my final chance to see if I could make it as a professional, now that’s sort of changed completely.” Despite what seems to be a career-crushing accident, Sammut still has a flicker of positivity to go with his can-do attitude, and a coaching caper to return to. “Everyone is hopeful,” he said. “The tri community is hopeful and my family is hopeful that I will make as close as possible to a full recovery. “So it might take a long time but I believe I can do it with the people I have around me.” The Ogging Squad is his triathlon coaching business, which he was already leading alongside full-time work and his own professional training hours. “I think I am going to try spend more time on that and rethink what happens because I just don’t know what functionality I am going to get back,” he said. “But I am hopeful.”

Local triathlete Jon Sammut fights for his future after tragedy struck during the Busselton Ironman

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