Diana Nyad achieved her lifelong dream Monday when she emerged exhausted, swollen, and triumphant after having spent nearly 53 hours swimming from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida, breaking multiple records along the way.
The 64-year-old Nyad swam up to the beach just before 2 p.m. EDT, surrounded by dozens of spectators who, despite their best intensions of encouraging her achievement, nearly succeeded in scuttling her triumph by blocking her way.
When she finally was cleared to emerge from the Straits of Florida on to the beach in Key West, she appeared dazed and sunburnt as she spoke to her fans in a scene televised worldwide. ““I have three messages,” Nyad said, her speech slurred because of bruises caused by a mask she wore to prevent jellyfish bites to her face and tongue. “One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you’re never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team [effort],” she added, embracing some of the 35 members of her crew who accompanied her the entire journey in boats, kayacks and scuba gear.
It was Nyad’s fifth attempt at the achievement in 35 years, and her fourth since turning 60. She was inspired to swim the Straits of Florida during a pre-Castro visit to Cuba as an eight-year old child.
An open lesbian, Nyad was born in New York City in 1949. After the death of her father when she was three, Nyad’s mother Lucy married a Greek land developer named Aristotle Nyad who later adopted the young child and moved the family to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was here while attending the private Pine Crest School that Nyad began her love of swimming, and won three Florida state championships in the backstroke at 100 and 200 yards.
A bout with endocarditis squelched any hope she harbored to compete in the 1967 Olympics, yet she continued competing setting world records in the process. After graduating from Pine Crest School that year, she entered Emory University, only to be eventually expelled when she jumped out a fourth-floor dormitory window wearing a parachute.
She subsequently enrolled at Lake Forest College in Illinois, where she played tennis and resumed swimming, concentrating on distance events. She soon came to the attention of Buck Dawson, director of the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, who introduced her to marathon swimming.
Nyad first attempt at swimming from Cuba to Florida took place in 1978 at the age of 28, soon after the Kennedy-era travel restrictions to Cuba were lifted. But at that time, she was encased in a 20 by 40 foot shark cage for protection, and was removed from the water after 42 hours of swimming when her team doctors determined that eight-foot swells were knocking her off course.
Nyad make three other attempts in as many years after reaching the age of 60—all without the benefit of a shark cage or swim fins, and each destined to failure due to high wave conditions, attacks by jellyfish and an asthma attack. When asked her motivation at that time, she replied, “Because I’d like to prove to the other 60-year-olds that it is never too late to start your dreams.”
While her successful fifth attempt ended in glory and multiple accolades, Diana Nyad is no recent arrival to fame. She is the author of three successful books, Other Shores (Random House: September 1978) about her life and distance swimming, Basic Training for Women (Harmony Books: 1981), and a biography of NFL wide-receiver Boss of Me: The Keyshawn Johnson Story (1999).
She has also written for The New York Times, Newsweek magazine, and other publications. Diana and longtime friend Bonnie Stoll (former number three in the world on the Pro Racquetball Tour) own a company called BravaBody aimed at providing online exercise advice to women over 40, with the two world-class athletes giving direct inspiration and custom-made work-outs. She is also a motivational speaker and has been a reporter and commentator for NPR.
“I have to say, I’m a little bit out of it right now,” Nyad told USA Today, after the completion of her record-breaking swim, while pointing to your swollen lips. She was taken to a waiting stretcher on the beach and received IV hydration and carbohydrates. “I just want to get out of the sun,” she said.
Speaking on the scene to CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Nyad said, ““It was really rough that first day, Saturday, after the start and I just said: ‘Forget about the surface up. Get your hands in somehow, and with your left hand, say, push Cuba back, and push Florida towards you,’” Nyad said.
Through it all, she held her mantra close: “You don’t like it. It’s not doing well. Find a way.” Diana Nyad found her way, and lived her dream. “It’s never too late. Ever.”
