Diana Nyad is the first person to do this 110 mile swim without a shark cage. But, she had to wear a plastic face mask and a special suit to protect her from painful jellyfish stings because of how prevalent they are in the oceans of the worlds now.
'Never, ever give up': Diana Nyad completes historic Cuba-to-Florida swim
| CNN International | - |
Key
West, Florida (CNN) -- If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try,
try, try again. That's the message from 64-year-old endurance swimmer
Diana Nyad, who achieved her lifelong goal of conquering the Straits of
Florida.
'Never, ever give up': Diana Nyad completes historic Cuba-to-Florida swim
updated 4:59 PM EDT, Mon September 2, 2013
Diana Nyad swims along Florida's Gold Coast in July 1978. On her fifth attempt, Nyad, now 64, became the first person to swim the 103 miles from Cuba to Florida
without a shark cage. The endurance swimmer achieved her lifelong
ambition of conquering the Straits of Florida on Monday, September 2,
after four earlier setbacks.
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Diana Nyad's long swim
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: "You are never too old to chase your dreams," Nyad says after 53-hour swim
- She becomes first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without shark cage
- This was Nyad's fifth and final attempt to make 103-mile swim
That's the message from
64-year-old endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, who achieved her lifelong goal
of conquering the Straits of Florida.
On Monday, she became the
first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a protective cage,
willing her way to a Key West beach just before 2 p.m. ET, nearly 53
hours after jumping into the ocean in Havana for her fifth try in 35
years.
Nyad pumped her fist as she walked onto the beach toward an awaiting medic before being guided to an ambulance.
Diana Nyad 'getting a little cranky now'
"I got three messages," an exhausted and happy Nyad told reporters.
"One is we should never
ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three
is it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team," she said.
Dozens of onlookers --
some in kayaks and boats, many others wading in the water or standing on
shore -- gathered to cheer her on as she finished the
more-than-100-mile swim.
Diana Nyad breaks distance record
Diana Nyad to try again
It was a long-awaited triumph for Nyad, who was making her fifth attempt since 1978 and her fourth since turning 60.
The first four tries were
marked by gut-wrenching setbacks; if the rough, strength-sapping seas
didn't force her to quit, an hours-long asthma attack or paralyzing and excruciating jellyfish stings did.
But for this swim,
besides donning a suit meant to protect her against her jellyfish
nemesis, she wore a special mask to prevent jellyfish stings to her
tongue, a key factor in her failed attempt last year.
She and her support team
didn't encounter many jellyfish this time. But she had plenty of other
challenges, and with roughly 2.5 miles left to go, she paused in the
water to thank her crew.
"This is a lifelong
dream of mine, and I'm very, very glad to be with you," she said late
Monday morning, treading water as she spoke to her team on the five
boats gathered around her, according to the team's website.
"You pulled through; you
are pros and have a great heart. So let's get going so we can have a
whopping party," she said, according to the website.
Nyad's age was one of
the intriguing aspects of her latest attempts. Nyad, who was 29 when she
first tried, said last week that she wanted to show that "you can dream
at any age."
"This time, I am 64. So,
the years of my life are shorter to the end," she said at a news
conference in Havana on Friday. "So this time I am, all the way across
... going to think about all those life lessons that came up during the
swim."
Fatigue almost seemed poised to derail her again early Monday.
About 7:30 a.m. ET, she was slurring her speech because of a swollen tongue and lips, her support team reported on its website.
As the team called her
around dawn for her first feeding since midnight, she took longer than
normal to reach the support boat, the report said.
Divers swam ahead of her, collecting jellyfish and moving them out of Nyad's path.
When instructed Monday
morning to follow the path that's been cleared for her, she flashed her
sense of humor, replying, "I've never been able to follow it in my
life," according to the website.
Nyad's home stretch
followed an overnight in which she became so cold, the team didn't stop
her for feeding until first light "in the hopes that swimming would keep
her warm," the website said.
Every stroke she swam
put her deeper into record territory. On Sunday night, she broke Penny
Palfrey's record for the farthest anyone has managed on the trek without
a shark cage.
In 1997, Australian Susie Maroney completed the swim from within a shark cage. She was 22 at the time.
Nyad set out from Havana at 8:59 a.m. Saturday with a crew of 35, including divers to watch for sharks.
In her first attempt to
cross the Straits of Florida in 1978, rough seas left her battered,
delirious and less than halfway toward her goal.
She tried again twice in 2011, but her efforts ended after an 11-hour asthma attack and jellyfish stings.
Last year, she abandoned an attempt about halfway through after severe jellyfish stings and a lightning storm put her in danger.
Nyad was a swimming
sensation before these attempts. In the 1970s, she won multiple swimming
marathons and was one of the first women to swim around the island of
Manhattan.
Nyad said she was 8
years old when she first dreamed about swimming across the Straits of
Florida. At the time, she was in Cuba on a trip from her home in Florida
in the 1950s, before Fidel Castro led a Communist takeover in Cuba and
the country's relations with the United States soured.
The Los Angeles woman had said this was going to be her final attempt.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann from Havana, Cuba, and John Zarrella and David Simpson contributed to this report.
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