A shark attack victim from Western Australia has become the first Australian woman to complete the gruelling Oceans Seven swimming challenge. The marathon feat involves swimming across seven of the world’s most dangerous channels, including the Strait of Gibraltar, English Channel, Cook Strait and North Channel. Triathlete Joanne Norman, who hails from Geraldton, became only the forty-third person in history to complete the swim, which totals more than 200 kilometres in open water.
Norman began her seven swim endeavour five years ago, ticking off her first swim across the English Channel in July 2021, as a way to mark her fiftieth birthday.
The fifty-five year said it was amazing to be the first woman from Australia to complete the global challenge.
“If you tried the Oceans Seven, you’re a little bit like me — very nutty,” she told ABC.
Norman said she was riding a ferry from France when she decided to take on the challenge.
“I was looking out on the water and I thought, ‘You know, I could probably swim the [English] Channel,'” she said this week.
After she completed her first swim, she explained her drive for taking on the challenge.
“I love my sport, and I also enjoy knowing what my body can do and pushing boundaries,” she said in 2021.
“It’s kind of who I am … I’ve always been stubborn, resilient, determined. Getting out of a comfort zone and being uncomfortable, but knowing that while you’re uncomfortable you can do many things. I guess that’s sort of a life thing … if you want to achieve anything that’s worth doing, you have to get out of your comfort zone.”
Over the next four years, she completed the remaining six ocean swims: in April 2023, she crossed Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco; in October she crossed the Catalina Channel from Santa Catalina Island to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California; in January 2024, she crossed the Cook Strait from the North Island of New Zealand to the South Island; in September she crossed the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland.
In March 2025, she completed the Molokaʻi Channel; in July 2025, she completed the Tsugaru Channel in northern Japan. Finally, earlier this month, she walked off the shore at North Pāpōhaku Beach on Molokai Island in the middle of the night, completing the final leg of the Oceans Seven after the final 41km leg, which took her 14 hours and 15 minutes.
Before her final swim, Norman reflected on the journey she’d been on.
“While these swims humble you and push you to your limit you come away a very different person,” she said. “I am not the person I was when I started this journey. I have learnt a lot about who I am, particularly when faced with a traumatic event. I would be lying to say I am not nervous, I am. But I also know that I have done everything in my control to be back here, the channel will decide if I am worthy of completing this swim.”
What makes Norman’s achievement even more astonishing is that during her attempt to swim the Molokaʻi channel last year, she was mauled by a cookiecutter shark. The wound on her abdomen took six weeks to heal after she underwent stomach surgery.
She also suffered a devastating loss in her family last year, when her father passed.
Despite the personal sufferings, Norma said she was determined to complete the challenge.
“I’m a glass-half-full kind of person — it could have been worse, it could have been a much bigger shark,” she told ABC this week.
“I didn’t want to let this fear cripple me. I swam like 3 hours in the dark before the sun came up and I was never happier to see the sunrise.”
Norman, who is the parent of four children, said that she never doubted she would complete the seven swims challenge.
“I don’t generally talk about failing, it’s not something that I use in my vocabulary,” she said. “It was just one swim at a time, ‘Let’s do one training block, let’s tackle the next swim.’”
Norman said she plans to swim the United Arab Emirates coastline — a total of 110 kilometres, next year.
“You never know what your limits are until you really test them,” she said, “- this one, I’m really going to test them.”