1. 60 JULY2011
WE’RE INSPIRED BY...
I
InterviewPhilMosleyPhotosRichCruse
LEFTFORDEADBYAHIT-AND-RUNDRIVERWHILEOUTTRAINING,PRO
TRIATHLETEJORDANRAPP’SLIFEWASSAVEDBYAPASSINGSTRANGER
T’S A BRIGHT spring evening
in California and pro triathlete
Jordan Rapp is hammering
along a quiet Ventura County
lane on his Specialized TT bike. He
has high hopes for the upcoming
season after winning Ironman
Canada and Ironman Arizona the
year before. At this moment in time
he only has one thought on his
mind: “I hope I finish this interval
before I reach the traffic lights.”
And that is the last thing he
remembers before he was the victim
of a terrible hit-and-run incident.
Left in a lake of his own blood, he
had minutes to live. Ask him what
happened, and he won’t know.
“I was finishing up some intervals,
preparing for the Oceanside
Ironman 70.3 triathlon the
following Saturday. The next thing I
recall was two days later, choking
when the doctors pulled a breathing
tube out of my throat. I don’t really
have the words to describe what
happened to me on that day,
because I have no idea.”
LUCKY ENCOUNTER
Fortunately for Jordan, Chief Petty
Officer Tom Sanchez was driving
back from his naval base, 48-hours
before he was due to fly to
Afghanistan. “I was just on my way
home, thinking about my family and
what I might be having for supper. I
was in no way ready for what
happened next.
“At first all I saw was a line of cars.
As I drove by, two Navy guys slowed
me down and asked me if I knew
first aid. I could see from their
badges that they’d had the same
training as me, but I said yes anyway.
“I saw a cyclist lying on his side, in
a pool of what I assumed was
transmission fluid. It turned out to
be his blood. He’d been rolling
around in it and it totally covered
his mouth, his eyes and even his
shoulders. I rolled down the collar
of his cycling jersey and saw this
massive hole in his neck, at least
seven centimetres wide. It was
pretty sick.
“I tried talking to him because his
eyes were partially open, but he just
moaned. When I tried to lay him
down, he would struggle back up
like he was doing a push-up. He
needed to calm down because I
couldn’t help him if he was fighting
me. I rolled him on to his back and
went to get my combat vest, which
contained a medical pack. I took
some gauze and tried stuffing the
hole but it was ridiculous, like
dropping napkins into an ocean. So I
pinned him down, put my hand
inside his neck and felt around until
I felt something pulsating inside. He
wasn’t even reacting to it, so I tried
pinching to stop the blood flow. I
couldn’t even feel if I was doing
anything. I just held it tight until an
ambulance came.
“When the paramedic arrived he
swapped his hand for mine, and
Jordan was rushed off to hospital. I
was left standing there wondering
what the hell had just happened. It
was surreal. One minute I’m driving
home, the next I’ve got my hand in
this guy’s neck. To have that whole
thing happen to you is pretty
intense. Yes, I’m in the military, but
I’m a carpenter by trade. We do have
combat training, but I’m not
normally the guy shooting guns or
breaking down doors.”
While Jordan was being rushed to
hospital, his wife Jill was at home
panicking: “I called Jordan’s phone
several times, and it just rang
through and nobody answered.
Then I started calling hospitals, but
he wasn’t at any of them. I knew
there was something wrong. I was
IAMTHE
RESURRECTION
TRI30.inspired 60 6/6/11 10:43:04 AM

2. JORDAN RAPP
JULY2011 61
“I love doing triathlon and
I didn’t want to give it up
because I was afraid. You
can get hurt crossing the
road and almost anything
has a risk attached”
TRI30.inspired 61 6/6/11 10:43:09 AM

3. WE’RE INSPIRED BY...
62 JULY2011
freaking out so I called 911 and gave a
description of him as missing. I couldn’t
even tell them where he might be. It was
getting dark too. He could have gone off
the edge of a cliff for all I knew. Within
10 minutes they called me back and
matched his description to an accident
that had happened.
“Minutes later the Sheriff called me,
and the first thing he said was: ‘We’ve
found your husband and he’s been the
victim of a hit and run.’ I thought he was
dead. I dropped the phone on the floor,
but my housemate picked it up and
heard the Sheriff saying ‘No, no, no he’s
alive and he’s on his way to the hospital.’
He couldn’t give us the full extent but he
said it was really serious. It was like one
of those nightmares that you never
expect to happen to you.
“We didn’t really hear anything from
the hospital staff when we got there. We
sat there for four hours, not knowing if
he was dead or alive. I confronted them,
but they couldn’t tell me what was
happening. It turns out they were
scanning him for brain damage, while a
plastic surgeon was doing emergency
work on his severed neck.
“I eventually saw him at one o’clock in
the morning and his face was all puffed
out. I didn’t know if he’d do triathlons
again, but I knew he was going to live.”
MEMORYLOSS
Jordan is still unsure of how it happened
and can only speculate: “I was riding on
this really quiet road. If someone had
told me I’d have an accident
somewhere, it would be the last place
I’d ever guess. It has a really wide
shoulder. You could ride two abreast in
this shoulder and cars could pass by
easily on the road without having to pull
out. There’s great visibility, no trees, a
long line of sight. It’s a safe road.
“We think I went through the side
window of the car, so all the glass
caused the marks you can see [see
picture, above right]. You have three
main jugular veins supplying your brain
with blood and it sliced through two of
them. They said I lost almost four litres
of blood. When Tom Sanchez arrived I
was two-and-a-half minutes away from
death. It took another eight minutes for
the ambulance to arrive, so there’s no
question that Tom saved my life. It’s a
fact that without Tom I would be dead.
No Tom, no Jordan.
“I also broke my shoulder blade and
my collar bone, which they plated. I
broke my cheekbone too, so now I have
titanium plates all across my face. I’m
fortunate because my glasses hit my eye
and cut me open, so they used that cut
as an insertion point for surgery on my
cheek. At least the scarring is mostly on
the inside of my mouth. I had bad nerve
damage too, so I couldn’t use one of my
arms. You can still see it’s much thinner
than the other. I call it my ‘Andy Schleck
bicep’ (after the skinny Tour de France
cyclist) although it’s grown a lot bigger
these days.”
“During my 18 days in hospital Tom
visited me, but my memory of that time
is very patchy. It wasn’t like I recognised
him. I was heavily sedated and I only
remember it because I saw pictures
afterwards. It seemed strange that I had
no memory of this guy who saved my
life. Shortly afterwards he got shipped
out to Afghanistan for eight months, but
we kept in touch by email and Facebook.
“At this point I didn’t even think about
triathlon. I certainly felt like I didn’t
want to ride a bike any more. So for the
whole time I was in hospital, and for at
least the first bit when I came out, I
never imagined I’d compete in
triathlons ever again. I felt that triathlon
had put me in this place.
Despiteplasticsurgery,Jordanstillbears
thescarsofhisterribleinjures
Lookingforward:Jordan’sultimategoalisto
beinwithachanceofwinningIronmanHawaii
TRI30.inspired 62 6/6/11 10:43:16 AM

4. 64 JULY2011
JORDAN RAPP
Rememberingthatdayontheir
firstvisitbacktotheaccidentsitetogether
Jordanflexeshisskinny‘AndySchleck’bicep
(left),whichisaresultofnervedamage
JordanandhissaviourTomhavebecome
greatfriendssincethatfatefulday
“Over time I changed my view. I love
doing triathlon and I didn’t want to give
it up because I was afraid. You can get
hurt crossing the road and almost
anything has a risk attached. I heard
of a guy at a pool party who dived in
and broke his neck and is now
paralysed. But that doesn’t mean none
of us should swim.
“I wasn’t allowed to train outside for
three months so my first ride after my
accident was on an indoor trainer. I was
on blood thinners because my neck had
torn so badly inside that they were
worried I could have a stroke. So if I’d
crashed I wouldn’t have stopped
bleeding. Even training inside was
tough. I couldn’t support my own weight
because I’d broken my collarbone, so I
was sitting upright and balancing on
one arm the whole time.
“I remember going to watch the
Wildflower Ironman 70.3 for my
sponsors Specialized, which was the
first time I’d left the house for a long
time. It felt so good to be somewhere
other than sitting on the couch. That’s
when I first thought about doing
Ironman Arizona again, and I remember
telling people. Nobody really believed
me and I don’t even know if I believed it
myself. But I needed something on the
horizon to keep me going. Ironman
Arizona would only be eight months
after my accident, soI knew it’d be tough.
“It took me a long time to pluck up the
courage to ride outside again. Every day
I was like: ‘Right, I’m going to go and
ride today’, but I didn’t have the nerve to
do it. Finally I asked some friends for
advice. Dan Empfield from Slowtwitch.
com cut to the chase by saying: ‘If you
want to do it, go do it. If you don’t, then
don’t. It’s not like you’re any more likely
to get hit than before.’ So eventually I
did – the hardest part was just making it
to the end of the block.”
FEELING THE PAIN
Returning to cycling was one thing, but
it was running that caused Rapp the
most problems: “Everything got hit so
hard and knocked out of whack from my
accident that when I tried to run I got
really bad ITB pain. It was so bad that I
had to stop after a minute. I couldn’t
even see a chiropractor because I had to
wait three-and-a-half months for
everything to heal first.
“So I used the gym to start from
scratch again. Slowly I built up my
running, but the first time I ran for an
hour was only eight weeks before
Ironman Arizona. Other than that I
guess I was running for 15 minutes
three times per week.
“My goal was still to win the race
though. I asked myself how much the
other guys wanted it. Some of them
were only there for Hawaii qualification
points and I knew I wanted it more.”
While Jordan was building his fitness,
Tom Sanchez was still serving in
Afghanistan, albeit with a few special
perks thanks to his newfound hero-
status. Jordan can’t help smiling as he
recounts the story: “Tom said that if he
added up all the parcels he got in his
entire naval career it would be less than
he got on that one trip. He was getting
presents from people even I didn’t know.
People I’d never met were emailing me
and asking for Tom Sanchez’s postal
address in Afghanistan. The triathlon
community came together and put
together a whole care package. One guy
who worked for a bedding firm sent him
a set of expensive sheets and pillows.
Tom said he had nicer bedding in his
barracks then he did at home! There was
another guy who worked for a company
who made casino supplies and he said
he’d send Tom some playing cards. I
TRI30.inspired 64 6/6/11 10:43:25 AM

5. WE’RE INSPIRED BY...
64 JULY2011
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“When Tom arrived I was two-and-a-half
minutes away from death. WithoutTom I
would be dead. No Tom, no Jordan”
JordanrodethefastestbikesplitatIronmanArizona,only
eightmonthsafterbeingleftfordeadontheroadside
guessed he’d send a few decks, but he
sent around 2,000! It became like a
running joke. He couldn’t even give
them all away.”
The US Navy flew Tom back home two
days early, so he could travel to Arizona
to watch Jordan make his Ironman
comeback. Tom recalls: “The gravity of
everything that happened hadn’t hit me
until that point. I was sitting by Tempe
Town Lake, listening to the announcer
before the race start. It was cold and
misty, we’d got up early and I was tired.
And I wasn’t even the one competing. To
think about the level Jordan was about
to race at was so physically amazing.
Eight months earlier I thought this guy
was dead. And now here he was racing
an Ironman. Sitting beside his wife Jill I
began to choke up, and she said: ‘don’t
you start, you’ll get me going too’”.
Amazingly, Jordan finished in fourth
place, recording a time of 8:16. In
almost any other year his time would
have guaranteed him first place.
“I was first off the bike, but Timo
Bracht was hot on my heels and he
broke away in transition. He’s not the
sort of guy who’s going to fall apart. I
was in second place for most of the run,
but at the 25km mark I went from four
minutes per kilometre right down to
four minutes 30 seconds. It was like a
light switch that came on almost
immediately. I knew I’d given all I’d got.
“I wanted to win, but I was still proud
of finishing well. Whether that was
fourth or sixth didn’t matter.”
His wife Jill adds: “If you see pictures
of Jordan at the finish you’ll see he’s
very emotional.”
Jordan agrees: “Tom was at the finish
line and gave me a big hug, along with
mine and Jill’s families. We’ve become
great friends. There was also a guy who
came up to me who’d set a course record
in his age-group the year before. A car
had hit him in September and he was
still in a rough condition. He was getting
choked up telling me his story. He said
seeing me made him believe he could
make a comeback too.
“I’m not happy about what I went
through, but I don’t think I’d take it
away. Helping other people who’ve been
through a similar thing is remarkable.
It’s such a good feeling. I’ve had a lot of
luck too, from Tom Sanchez being at the
scene, right through to the specialist
trauma team that treated me.”
Tom prefers to think it was karma
rather than luck. “When I found Jordan
lying on the road he’d been training for
Ironman 70.3 Oceanside to raise money
for a charity that helps disabled naval
personnel. It seemed like karma that he
was saved by someone in the Navy. Had
it been two days later I would have been
in Afghanistan.”
Jordan’s come a long way from that
day he was found lying on the roadside,
and getting race-ready again from his
near-death experience shows just what
a truly inspirational triathlete he is.
Breakingdownintearsashecrosses
thefinishlineatIronmanArizona
JordanwithhispregnantwifeJill,whobelieves
theaccidentbroughtthemclosertogether
TRI30.inspired 64 6/6/11 10:43:33 AM