61-year-old Diana Nyad attempts 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West
Diana Nyad is living her lifelong dream, albeit an ambitious and unusual one. This June or July, the swimming legend will take a stab at swimming all the way from Cuba to Florida, reported The Washington Post.
Not only is the journey long and arduous, requiring 60 hours of exertion, it is more dangerous than one may think. The Florida Straits are home to numerous sharks, and Nyad will be attempting the feat sans shark cage. The swimmer will also be at risk for man o’ war jellyfish stings as well as hypothermia, dehydration and cardiac arrhythmia, in which the heart beats too slow, too fast or erratically.
Nyad, once regarded as the greatest endurance swimmer around the globe, hopes to finish the task she began 32 years ago, when she first made an attempt at the 103-mile swim.
“I have no idea what age I am,” she said to The Washington Post. “I don’t feel different in any way. People say, ‘Maybe you should take more recovery time between swims because of your age.’ I’m like, ‘Oh. My age. I forgot.’”
Even with a prepatory 24-hour marathon swim and a previous attempt under her belt, Nyad is still venturing into the unknown.
“She is off the map,” her physician, Michael Broder, said. “There are people who do endurance for this long, but not in the water and not isolated like this. She’s out there. You can’t provide her with things that you could provide a land athlete with.”
Nyad has already been in the spotlight for her famous swims, including a dangerous, record-setting swim around the island of Manhattan for nearly eight hours and a 102-mile expedition from the Bahamas to Florida, a world record for distance.
Nyad’s previous attempt to make the journey from Cuba to Key West in 1978 had been thwarted by intense winds and 8-foot swells. She fought valiantly for almost 50 hours before she was forced to cut her trip short and be hauled into a boat, having been pushed so far off course that she was approaching Texas.
“Can’t I keep going?” she mumbled, according to Sports Illustrated. She walked away with a badly swollen tongue, but still in one piece. Exhausted and interested in pursuing journalism, she ceased serious swimming for 31 years. As her 60th birthday approached, she began to rethink her life goals. She soon realized her greatest regret was not finishing her Cuba to Florida swim.
So her dream was born again, and she resumed training. Her 24-hour trial swim convinced her she could go the distance.
The endurance swimmer, though, will not be making the journey entirely alone. She will be accompanied by a support flotilla of 25 experts, including navigators and weather-routers to keep her on course and away from the terrible conditions she encountered during her previous attempt.
These experts will also advise her on the most favorable time to make the swim by using infrared, satellite altimetry and surface isotherm data.
Nyad will be waiting in Key West to hear the weather reports, anticipating the challenge of the trip.
“There’s something gripping about the journey,” she said. “Who’s going to be strong enough to make it?”
For more information, visit diananyad.com.
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