American withstood thousands of jellyfish bites after marathons swimming 14 hours in New Zealand. By the end, even her face – her nose, ears and lips – were filled with bites.
The American Maya Merhige made one of the boldest ventures in swimming, the crossbar of the Cook’s Port in the New Zealandas he crossed by swimming about 27 miles, but the degree of difficulty was even greater.
As she describes during swimming, she was constantly accepting almost painful jellyfish bites that burned her skin.
“I’ve done so much mental gymnastics in the water that I can adapt myself to deal with whatever situation occurs.”
American teenager Maya Merhige withstood thousands of jellyfish stings in her 14-hour swim across the Cook Straight. pic.twitter.com/yqKmKgCdaP
— CNN Sports (@cnnsport) April 30, 2025
She had already completed several hours of swimming in the Cook Red in New Zealand and had slowly gained immunity to the young, but had also gained very bitter bites throughout her body.
By the end, even on her face – her nose, ears and lips – signs were formed by jellyfish.
«Constantly, about 25 times a minute – again and again“, Is the frequency with which 17 -year -old California estimates that she was pinched.
«I’m so scared. I don’t want to see jellyfish again“, Says Merhige and describes how”All the time I struggled with myself mentally to overcome this fear».
Merhige has now successfully crossed the Cook’s Kuk, the Moloka’i channel In Hawaii, the channel Catalina off the coast of Los Angeles and the English Channel Between England and France.
In the list of her plans is still the Northern channel Between Ireland and Scotland, the Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco and the Tick in Japan.