The Sydney Harbor Splash, an Australia Day open water event in Vancluse (west of Sydney), has been cancelled following four shark attacks over a three-day span along the coast of New South Wales.
2026’s Sydney Harbor Splash was set to take place on January 26th, also known as Australia Day, marking the 10th time the event has been held, with swimmers beginning at Rose Bay and offering 1km, 2.5km, and 5km options.
The beaches along the mid-north coast had received reports of four separate shark attacks in three days, leading organizers of the event to cancel, following one of the attacks, which involved a 12-year-old boy being critically injured.
According to the New Zealand Herald, the first attack, that of the 12-year-old boy, was bitten by a bull shark on a Sydney Harbour beach on Sunday afternoon, leaving him with critical injuries to both legs.
The following day, an 11-year-old boy was knocked off his board at Dee Why beach, narrowly escaping with no injuries, but he did have a bite taken out of the board.
The third happened later that same day, as a 27-year-old man was bitten on the calf at North Steyne, just over six kilometers (3.79 miles) from Dee Why beach. According to a report from the New Zealand Herald, the man was rushed to the hospital in critical condition after losing large amounts of blood.
According to ABC News Australia, a group of surfers in Point Plomer had reportedly seen four sharks before a man was knocked off his board, and was later found with a chunk bitten out of his board, and bite marks through his wetsuit, but was only treated for minor cuts. This attack marked the fourth in 72 hours.
According to NBC News, organizers of the events said on Monday the cancellation comes “out of deep respect for the young boy who was tragically attacked yesterday, and for his family and friends.”
On average, Australia records an average of 20 injury-causing shark attacks annually, and fewer than three deaths from shark attacks. In 2025, Australia had reported 23 shark bite incidents, with 2026 having already recorded five through the first three weeks of the calendar year; no deaths have yet been reported.
Vaucluse is an eastern suburb of Sydney btw.
wouldnt the shark threat just make them swim faster and we might see a world record in open water
Dang!!
you don’t have to run faster than a bear, just faster than the slowest friend you are hiking with!
does same apply to sharks and open water swimming?
lol
Click bait headline. Australian Openwater Champs is definitely ON!!!
At first I thought open water national was cancelled when I saw this title.
Aus Openwater Champs is certainly NOT cancelled!! Conditions are great in Bunbury and the location is 5000km (3 and a bit thousand miles) from the East Coast where the attacks happened, absolutely no chance this is being cancelled as a result of those attacks.
Your name handle is very disrespectful to the 4 recent victims.
They’ve had the same handle for years so I don’t think it’s disrespectful.
Short took the bronze in the 10,000m swim.
1:45 200 all the way to being solid at 10km, that’s some range ! His training partner Tiana also took bronze. Rackley continue to impress.
Approximately 4 people die per day in Australia in vehicle accidents. That makes 80 people so far in 2026 vs no deaths from sharks. I’ll take my chances in the water.
I used to think like this until I was attacked myself. The risk is also higher for cyclists and triathletes of being struck by a car, but it doesn’t stop them from biking on the roads. However, there is something about being mauled by a wild animal that is on another level.
there are far more people riding in vehicles per day, than swimming in the ocean per day,
so your statistic conclusion makes no sense
Not a statistical conclusion but you can easily research and compare those odds if interested – You’ll be surprised at the results. I was having a bit of a stab at the media sensationalism that accompanies each shark attack.
If you compare the total number of minutes per day Australians spend in a vehicle vs the number of minutes they spend at the beach (physically in the water above the knee where it is possible to be attacked by a shark) I imagine the time spent in cars would be more by several thousand fold
I thought I read that Australians all live on the beach?? Maybe same place I read that swimming is Australia’s most popular sport ;-).
That’s terrible. I was attacked by a shark on a solo open water swim. My left hand went right through its mouth, but I escaped with only minor serrations on both sides of my hand. Probably just a juvenile. It is not common here in So California, but some of the attacks that have occurred over the last 20 years were serious or fatal with white sharks as large as 15ft reported. I just swim at the pool or inside the bay now.
Good decision. I’m curious if shark attacks are on the rise in the world or if the news media is covering this more due to a few high profile events.
I think they are on the rise in Australia- we used to average 1 death a year, now it seems to be multiple every year- and now multiple in one city in a week!
I live in Adelaide, and we have had a couple of recent deaths in our state too.
Not blaming the swimmers at all, but I would not swim in murky water (there has been a lot of rain) and certainly not around dawn or dusk.