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Ellen probably wouldn't have survived, let alone broken the record, if she didn't have such extreme mental toughness.
Is it the third conditional? I guess, they talking about past events that didn't happen. Then why "if part" of the sentence contains the past simple verb and not the past perfect?
Also this sentence from the same text
But if she hadn't endured such tough experiences herself, she wouldn't understand nearly as much about what these young people have to face.
The uses of tense here are possible. Both sentences have a past irrealis in the in the condition clause and present irrealis in the consequence clause. The first sentence implies that Ellen's past survival was attributable to a toughness which she still possesses. The second implies that her present understanding is attributable to her past endurance.
However, these are rather borderline uses; and such tough experience and this young people in the second sentence suggests that the sentences were probably written by a non-native speaker.
In any case, you clearly have sufficient knowledge of English syntax to discard the “nth conditional” framework, which is merely a pedagogical device for introducing learners to conditional constructions and bears no relationship to the realities of English syntax.
