Two-time extreme kayaking world champion Mariann Saether nearly drowned in Chile’s Río Pascua twenty years ago, an experience that failed to deter her from the sport. Now a mother of two, she continues to balance high-risk whitewater paddling and paragliding with raising her children, according to an NZZ am Sonntag report.
Saether Continues Kayaking After Near-Death Experience
Under water, the light fades and Saether stops swimming. The Norwegian kayaker had just caught her breath before the current of the Río Pascua pulled her back down. “That’s it,” she thought, “I’m going to die,” she told NZZ am Sonntag.
A wave ripped her paddle away, and her heavy boat refused to right itself.
Then a single thought shot through her mind: “I want to live.” Moments later, she surfaced beside a friend’s kayak who grabbed her life vest.
Just days afterward, Saether sat in a boat again. For the 46-year-old, that near-death incident was not a reason to quit. She made no mistake, she told NZZ am Sonntag, calling it an accident outside her control.
How Oktoberfest Bartending Funded World Championships
Saether paddled in more than fifty countries, hunting for large waterfalls and steep whitewater. In Norway, she ran the Laksforsen, a sixteen-meter drop. In Switzerland, she descended the Rhine Falls.
She financed her lifestyle through an unconventional model: sixteen days as a waitress at the Munich Oktoberfest paid for six months of kayaking. In summer, she worked as a raft guide in Norway, paddling almost year-round for fifteen years.
“I am grateful to all the beer-drinking people who always gave me so much tips,” Saether told NZZ am Sonntag, laughing.
She mixed in freestyle, slalom, and extreme races on steep, technical whitewater. In 2015, she won her first extreme kayaking world title on the Wellerbrücke in Austria’s Ötztal, known as the “Eiger North Face of kayaking.”
What Changed When She Became a Mother
At age 35, Saether and her partner, Swiss kayaker Ron Fischer—whom she met on a river in Chile—decided it was time for a family. Her mother felt a woman’s path was fixed after having a child, expecting women to set aside their own needs. Saether refused to let society define her by that role alone.
“I want to be Mariann first, then mother, friend, and partner,” Saether told NZZ am Sonntag.
Close friends expected her to slow down during pregnancy. Some refused to paddle with her, while others stopped inviting her on downhill bike rides.
“That they didn’t trust me to know my limits was devastating,” Saether told NZZ am Sonntag.
She kept mountain biking and kayaking while listening to her body, stopping paragliding in her sixth month. She relied on a calculated risk model, scouting difficult sections and planning escape routes with friends stationed on the shore.
How Loss Shaped Her View of Calculated Risk
Saether knows what risk means in her world. While pregnant with her first child, her best friend died in an avalanche. Her son Benjamin is named after him. Within six years, Saether lost seven friends in outdoor sports accidents.
“Of course I don’t want my children to grow up without a mother,” Saether told NZZ am Sonntag.
She trusts her ability to assess manageable risks. If she cannot picture how she will exit a difficult situation, she does not run the river.
After Benjamin’s birth, she reorganized her daily life. When Fischer could not watch him, she trained on flat water with a baby monitor strapped around her neck while her son slept on the bank.
If he cried, she stopped training. Later, neighbors and friends watched Benjamin for an hour or two, forming what Saether calls a “river family.”
Nearly three years after Benjamin’s birth, she won her second extreme kayaking world championship.
When She Decided to End Her Competitive Career
When her daughter Saga was born in 2021, Saether found it harder to return to her previous physical level. Still, she fulfilled a twenty-year dream by descending the twenty-meter Aldeyjarfoss waterfall in Iceland. After working up through smaller drops and dozens of training runs, she found her line and ran it.
When she entered a slalom world cup afterward and finished last, she did not care.
“Here I am, two kids later. I’m no longer a professional athlete,” Saether told NZZ am Sonntag.
She ended her competitive career, calling it an “ego death.” She now finds her freedom in the air through paragliding, and on the river, she drifts down calm water with her children for picnics. Benjamin has paddled since he was three years old.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mariann Saether
What awards has Mariann Saether won in extreme kayaking?
Saether won her first extreme kayaking world title in 2015 on the Wellerbrücke in Austria’s Ötztal, and claimed her second extreme kayaking world championship roughly three years after her son Benjamin was born. She also finished second overall at the Whitewater Grand Prix in Canada and fourth at a freestyle world championship in Thun, Switzerland.
How many rivers has she paddled globally?
Saether has paddled in more than fifty countries, searching out large waterfalls and steep whitewater, including Norway’s Laksforsen and the Rhine Falls in Switzerland.
What documentary features her story?
Her story is featured in the documentary film “I Follow Rivers,” which is shown on the European Outdoor Film Tour.