Turia Pitt was running a 100-kilometer ultramarathon when the fire caught up with her.
It was September 2, 2011, in the Kimberley region of Australia. A wildfire trapped the runners and burned 65% of her body. A mining engineer and model, she was 24 years old at the time. Doctors did not expect her to survive.
She spent nearly two and a half years in the hospital. Fingers on both hands were amputated, she lost 20 kilos, and she had to relearn how to sit, walk, talk, and eat. Skin grafts from donors were needed to repair her skin: according to one source, 16 Americans donated tissue that helped save her life.
As she recounted herself, a doctor told her she would never run again. Turia thought she would prove him wrong. Her mother and her partner, Michael, went to the hospital every day and got her up to walk along the corridors, telling her it was time for her Ironman training.
Almost five years after the fire, she finished Ironman Australia in 13 hours and 24 minutes. In October 2016, she completed the World Championship in Hawaii: 3,8 km swimming, 180 km cycling, and a full marathon. Today, she is a book author, a mother of two, and has raised more than a million dollars for the NGO Interplast.