Diana Nyad: Swimming with the Sharks
It could happen any day now. For months, 61-year-old Diana Nyad has waited patiently to begin her journey more than thirty years in the making --- a journey she has attempted once before and one that no one has ever completed.
The backstory: in 1978, 28-year-old Diana announced she would swim from Cuba to Florida. At 103 miles, it would be the longest distance anyone had ever attempted to swim in the open water. Diving into the ocean at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 13, from Ortegosa Beach (50 miles west of Havana), Diana swam inside a 20 X 40 foot steel shark cage for nearly 42 hours, before team doctors removed her during the morning of Tuesday, August 15, due to strong winds and eight-foot swells that were slamming her against the cage and pushing her off-course towards Texas. She had covered about 76 miles, but not in a straight line. She emerged from the ocean battered, exhausted and covered in jellyfish stings.
Now Nyad, a loyal Foundation friend and the Emcee of our Grand March of Champions at our Annual Salute for many years, has decided that 61 is the perfect age to try the swim again. She trained and prepared all of last year in the hope that she would attempt the epic swim last summer. Hurricanes and cold water temperatures kept her at bay, but 2011 is looking like the year of Diana.
This time, she will be armed with better technology and although she swims with a battered but tough body, she is certain she will make it. “Physically, I am much stronger than I was before, although I was faster in my 20s,” Nyad told the New York Times, (who describes her as sturdy enough to defy a linebacker.) “I feel strong, powerful, and endurance-wise, I’m fit.”
Read the entire New York Times feature on Nyad here.
Learn more about her here.