Initially setting off in a kayak, Austin had to abandon the vessel after it took on too much water in the rough conditions. About two hours into his four-hour swim, he ditched the lifejacket he was wearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very puffed out but I couldn\u2019t feel how tired I was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just keep swimming, I do breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once he had swum the 4km (2.49 miles) to shore in fading light, the teenager ran 2km (1.24 miles) to his family\u2019s accommodation, using his mother\u2019s phone to call emergency services at about 6pm.<\/p>\n
Map of WA<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018I need helicopters, I need planes, I need boats, my family\u2019s out at sea.\u2019 I was very calm about it. I think it was just a lot of shock.\u201d<\/p>\n After the call, he passed out from exhaustion and was taken to the hospital. His family was rescued floating about 14km (8.7 miles) offshore. Austin was given crutches to help his sore legs bear his weight, the ABC reported.<\/p>\n How did the 13-year-old swim and run that far?<\/p>\n Prof David Bishop, a muscle exercise physiologist at Victoria University, said fight-or-flight situations can enable athletes \u2013 and ordinary people \u2013 \u201cto go beyond what their perceived limits are\u201d.<\/p>\n There have been other reports of preternatural strength. In 2013, two teenage girls in Oregon reportedly lifted a 1,360kg tractor<\/a> off their father\u2019s chest; in 2016, another US teenager<\/a> was said to have lifted a car to save her father, while a 16-year-old<\/a> reportedly did the same for a neighbour in 2019.<\/p>\n The phenomenon has sometimes been referred to as \u201chysterical strength\u201d, though the origins of the term is unclear.<\/p>\n In a 1961 study<\/a>, researchers found that people were immediately stronger at a forearm flexion task when frightened, after shooting a starting pistol next to participants\u2019 ears without warning.<\/p>\n Anthony Blazevich, a professor of biomechanics at Edith Cowan University, said the release of fight-or-flight hormones had an impact.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you get highly motivated, if you have some fear, you\u2019re going to be releasing adrenaline, noradrenaline, other stress hormones like cortisol, which dump a whole bunch of sugar into your blood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese things really help you do somewhat brief activity, from seconds up to minutes or potentially even tens of minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n But for activities lasting hours \u2013 in the case of Austin\u2019s swim \u2013 \u201ceventually these systems do get depleted\u201d, Blazevich said. The periods of recovery afforded by survival backstroke \u2013 a swimming style aimed at conserving energy \u2013 may have been critical, particularly in saltwater, where floating was relatively feasible.<\/p>\n Some experts argue that endurance is an issue of mind over matter<\/a>. Prof Samuele Maria Marcora, an exercise scientist at the University of Bologna, has shown mental fatigue can impair physical performance<\/a>, while other research<\/a> has found endurance performance is improved by using imagery, self-talk and goal setting.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just thinking in my head: I was going to make it through, but I was also thinking about all my friends,\u201d Austin said of his swim. \u201cI have to keep on going.\u201d<\/p>\n Bishop said: \u201c[Austin] had a base of swimming fitness and physiology that allowed his strong mind to go beyond the limits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing feat.\u201d<\/p>\n Was age a factor?<\/p>\n Blazevich\u2019s research has shown that children can perform as well as highly trained adult endurance athletes. In a study<\/a> comparing 10-year-old boys with 21-year-old men during high-intensity cycling, he found the children outperformed most adults.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kids do is recover incredibly rapidly, as good as elite endurance athletes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n However, adults have larger hearts and lungs, and central nervous systems that do \u201cnot seem to fatigue as fast\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is probably why kids play on an intermittent basis \u2026 They run, stop, run, stop, but they do it all day,\u201d Blazevich said.<\/p>\n Austin told the ABC that he had started swimming lessons when he was four \u2013 but had previously found it \u201cquite tiring\u201d to swim 350 metres without a break.<\/p>\n Are there similar feats of survival at sea?<\/p>\n Other incidents of unintended aquatic endurance have previously made headlines around the world.<\/p>\n In 2013, South African man Brett Archibald<\/a> was found after falling overboard a surf charter in the Indian Ocean and treading water for more than 28 hours.<\/p>\n Austin\u2019s remarkable swim has parallels with the story of the Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini<\/a>, who as a teenager in 2015 swam for over three hours to reach the island of Lesbos \u2013 pulling with two others their migrant boat, after the dinghy began to take on water in the Aegean Sea.<\/p>\n![\"Teenage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770240728_151_1920.jpg\")
Teenage boy\u2019s 4km swim to shore to save family captured in aerial footage \u2013 video<\/p>\n