Triathlete Leah Prudhomme attacked by otter while swimming

Triathlete Leah Prudhomme needed several rabies shots after being attacked by a sea otter while swimming in a Minnesota lake last week.

Prudhomme, who has done seven half Ironman triathlons and also coaches triathletes, suffered the injuries while training with a friend for her second full Ironman Triathlon. The two were swimming in Island Lake near Duluth when Prudhomme was attacked.

The details according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

[Prudhomme and a friend] swam around an island and veered back to shore. As they passed a bog, Prudhomme felt a nip at her ankle. She stopped, frantically treading water. Up popped the otter’s head before it dove back underwater and attacked “ferociously.”

The otter left 25 bite marks around Prudhomme’s legs, feet, and back, but luckily her wet suit took the worst of it.

“It just kept coming after me,” said Prudhomme, 33. “You never knew where it was going to bite next.”

Otter attacks are extremely uncommon — there reportedly have only been 40 in the last 20 years. Prudhomme isn’t letting the attack deter her; she’s planning to compete in the Duluth Triathlon next month on the same lake.

“I’m scared, but it’s one of those things you don’t want to let get the best of you,” she told the Star Tribune. “It’s not like I’ll be bitten by another otter.”

Maybe not an otter, but perhaps an alligator?

H/T Sports by Brooks Live via Off the Bench