At 64, Nyad Conquers Cuba-to-Florida Swim

By Chad Bray

Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad made history by completing the first swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Exhausted and sunburnt, she spoke briefly upon her arrival in Key West. Photo: AP.

Thirty-five years after her first attempt and in her fifth try, 64-year-old American swimmer Diana Nyad became the first person to successfully swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage.
In a grueling journey that lasted about 53 hours, the long-distance swimmer and former sportscaster for ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and Fox Sports successfully swam about 110 miles from Havana to Key West, Fla.
Her journey, which was documented regularly with video and photographs on her website, began early Saturday morning from Marina Hemingway in Havana and ended on Monday afternoon in Key West.
The straight-line distance is about 103 miles, but the movement of the ocean can make the actual swim longer.
“I am about to swim my last 2 miles in the ocean. This is a lifelong dream of mine, and I’m very, very glad to be with you,” Ms. Nyad said, when she briefly paused about 2 miles off the Florida coast, according to a post on her blog.

“I’ve got three messages. One is we should never ever give up. Two is you’re never too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team,” Ms. Nyad told reporters in televised comments after finishing. An exhausted Ms. Nyad was then placed on a stretcher.
Ms. Nyad made her first attempt in 1978 at the age of 29 years old, using a shark cage and coming up short after more than 42 hours in the water.
A shark cage prevents swimmers from coming in contact with sharks, jellyfish and other sea life that could impede their journey.
She didn’t try again until 2011, more than 30 years later. Three attempts in 2011 and 2012 ended unsuccessfully, as a result of bad weather or jellyfish stings. On her last two swims, she wore a specially designed, thin-nylon suit, known as a “jellyfish suit,” to prevent stings.
At a news conference in Havana on Friday, Ms. Nyad said it would be her final attempt at the crossing.
The journey wasn’t without its challenges. On Saturday evening, a storm came within 4 miles of her position, with winds gusting to 18 knots and waves reaching heights of 2 to 3 feet, according to her blog. Later, part of her support team had to come out of the water because of 23-knot squalls. At one point on Sunday night, Ms. Nyad told her handlers she was hallucinating and her tongue began to swell.
She was trailed by a team of five boats, which included divers to keep an eye out for sharks, physicians to monitor her health and kayakers to keep watch over her as she swam, according to her website.
By Sunday evening, Ms. Nyad, aided by a favorable Gulf Stream current, had swum 80.38 miles—farther than anyone else who had attempted the feat, her website said. Her average speed at the time was just over 2 miles per hour.
Write to Chad Bray at chad.bray@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared September 2, 2013, on page A3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: At 64, Nyad Conquers Cuba-to-Florida Swim.

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