Diana Nyad jumped into the water to begin her swim from Havana, Cuba, to the Florida Keys.
Have you ever dreamed of doing something big and daring? Diana Nyad has. Nyad is 64 years old. Her dream was to swim from Cuba to Florida. That’s about 110 miles. The water is dangerous and difficult to swim in.
Nyad first tried the swim 35 years ago. But she was not able to finish it. The wind kept blowing her shark cage off course. This kind of cage protects swimmers from sharks. So, Nyad put aside her dream for a while.
When Nyad turned 60, she decided to try again. This time, she would make the swim without a shark cage. No one had ever done this. Some people thought Nyad was too old to make the swim from Cuba to Florida. She started training to prove them wrong.
From 2011 to 2012, she tried three times to make the swim. But she failed each time. Stings from the deadly box jellyfish forced her to stop. Nyad had a motto to help her not give up. It was “find a way.”
On August 31, 2013, Nyad made her fifth try. She wore a bodysuit and mask to protect her from the jellyfish. But the mask caused her to swallow too much salt water. She got very sick, but she kept going. Finally, after 53 hours of swimming, she found her way. Nyad had reached Florida. She proved that you are never too old to achieve your dreams.
Image credit: ©AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
Related Link
- Diana Nyad—Historic Swim from Cuba to Florida
Hear Diana Nyad talk about her historic swim on ABC News.
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