She Did It! Nyad Finishes Epic Cuba-Fla. Swim

Swimmer completes 110-mile journey on 5th, final try in 35 years

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 2, 2013 7:32 AM CDT
Updated Sep 2, 2013 1:03 PM CDT

Copied

Nyad Breaks Distance Record in Swim to Cuba — U.S. swimmer Diana Nyad, 64, adjusts her goggles before jumps into the water and start her swim to Florida from Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013. Endurance athlete Nyad launched another bid Saturday to set an open-water record by swimming from Havana to the Florida Keys without a protective shark... (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

The fifth try was indeed the charm: Diana Nyad has completed her 35-year-old odyssey to become the first swimmer to cross the Florida Straits Cuba without a shark cage. She was in the water roughly 53 hours, reports CNN. Nyad's team posted this message earlier on her website: "I am about to swim my last two miles in the ocean. This is a lifelong dream of mine and I'm very very glad to be with you..." "Diana is swimming strong after 43 hours non-stop," a member of her team said this morning. "The lights of Key West (are) growing brighter and brighter before us."

Her navigator posts: "Diana is on course to swim 112 statute miles. This is 35 more miles than anyone has ever swam." Nyad earlier today broke a distance record set last year by Penny Palfrey, CNN notes. Wearing a special mask, Nyad is well-prepared for the threat of jellyfish—but none have been seen so far, the BBC reports. But it hasn't all been easy:

"She is throwing up everything she eats," said an earlier post on the site, via CNN. "She's quite nauseous from sea salt, but that's to be expected. We're giving her enough calories and nutrition. We're just going to keep feeding her, and we hope that some of it is going down."

(More Diana Nyad stories.)

Report an error