A wisdom tooth removal surgery changed the life of this young swimmer for the worse, until she found a way to use her pain to change things for the better. Marissa McAuliffe has her heart set on making the 21-mile swim across the English Channel, but there's more to her story than just casually rising up to the challenge.
It was what she faced in 2022 that gave her life a new meaning. That year, she underwent a wisdom tooth removal surgery and ended up suffering a lingual nerve injury during the procedure. The athlete began experiencing “excruciating pain” and feeling like a flame was “constantly being held on my tongue 24/7.”
When she went for a corrective surgery, it only made matters worse. The medicine she was given and the pain she was in took a toll on her mentally. “The pain was pretty much excruciating to the point where I didn’t want to live anymore with this pain. I didn’t think I could handle it anymore,” she explained.
Marissa still deals with the pain, but it has subsided to around a “5 out of 10” from the “8 out of 10” it had been in 2022 — and now she's seeing life in a different perspective.
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The 30-year-old is now prepared to face the challenge of a lifetime, conquering what's considered to be the “Mount Everest of long-distance swimming." Only 2,487 people and 169 American women have ever completed this swim before.
“I’ve always liked big challenges in my life, and I thought this would be the perfect one to utilize my skills and fortitude,” Marissa said. She continued on saying, “I decided 2023 was just going to be a year where I was just going to do what made me happy and that’s how swimming came back into the picture. I’ve always loved swimming so much and it always made me feel happy and good. Just overcoming the whole lingual nerve injury just kind of set me up for even more fuel for the fire to get the English Channel done.”
Marissa has already accomplished so much in her life. She successfully began long-distance swimming at the age of 23 and then transitioned into competing in triathlons and Ironman events. She once ranked eighth in the world for ages 25 to 29 in 2021 by Ironman.
During 2023, while living in Ecuador, she started swimming for Carill 4, a swim club based in Riobamaba, and set a national record in the 100-meter freestyle in October 2023. That same month, she was named best overall female in the master’s category of the 2023 Masters Championship at Club Rancho San Francisco. She also finished second overall female at the Oceanman Manta 10K swim in June 2023.
Though she knows the task is challenging, Marissa doesn't see the English Channel swim as something she can't accomplish. “When you have a goal and you want to accomplish it, you do what it takes to get it done,” she said. “I’ve decided it’s what I want to do, so whatever I need to do to accomplish it is what I will do.”
She hopes to make the swim within 12 hours. She will be joined by many other swimmers who are up for the challenge as well. The swimmer noted, “You can’t really put a price on a dream or a goal or something you want to accomplish.”
