Holy bejeezus ...
Diana Nyad: I broke many records in my prime as a long-distance swimmer back in the 1970’s, in my twenties. For my world record—102.5 continuous miles from the Bahamas to Florida in 1979—and other swims, such as breaking the 50-year-old mark for circling Manhattan Island ... Yet my dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida was dashed in 1978, after fighting stiff winds and huge seas for 41hrs, 49 mins, and still not reaching the Florida coast ...
... Until a year ago, I hadn’t swum a stroke for 31 years. Swimmer’s burnout gripped me to the point that I could have sworn I would never, ever swim a lap again in my life. But approaching 60 last year threw me into the existential angst of wondering what I had done with my life ... I started swimming a few laps, just to take some pressure off the knees from all the other activities I enjoy.
My workouts escalated. My motivation started to burn like a fire in my soul. One day I was driving, after a long swim, and I stopped and looked hard in the rearview mirror. And I said to myself: This is one dream I actually could go back and achieve. At 60, I could swim from Cuba to Florida. This time, without a shark cage.
But first, a little warmup swim ...
AboutDiana: On July 10th, at the age of 60, legendary open-water swimmer Diana Nyad will attempt to complete her first marathon swim in over 30 years. Nyad's triumphant return to long-distance swimming till take her 50 miles off the Florida Coast to begin a consecutive 24-hour swim through the Gulf Stream's open-water and back to the Florida shoreline, without a shark cage.
CNN Health: Diana Nyad chases a dream
Diana's Website
Wow.
Former Member
I saw a report by Sunjay Gupta on CNN but tried to find it again and was not able to. So it may be wrong info.
How do you know this? I believe it, but sourcing the information would be helpful.
Just watched the report again Gupta said she was in and out of the boat twice during this swim. Once the night before and once last nite then finally out again.
When I lived in Houston I had a friend who ,at the time,held the record for the most English Channel crossings at 8.He disparagingly referred to Ms. Nyad as"the greatest channel swimmer to never swim the English Channel."
I don't know her and I am certainly impressed with how far she swam this time,but I really don't know what to make of this.It is certainly a test of endurance,it is certainly an attempt of Quixotic proportions,but I don't know the right label for it.It is not an unassisted swim.I'm not sure if Cuba to FL is possible as an unassisted swim.It is a ...?
Am I the only one who think this is a little silly. It sort of reminds me of all the people who were "climbing" Everest in the late 90's. I do applaud DN for trying. And it is her goal so good for her. But to cover this like it is an athletic achievement is a bit, well, misleading.
When I lived in Houston I had a friend who ,at the time,held the record for the most English Channel crossings at 8.He disparagingly referred to Ms. Nyad as"the greatest channel swimmer to never swim the English Channel."
I don't know her and I am certainly impressed with how far she swam this time,but I really don't know what to make of this.It is certainly a test of endurance,it is certainly an attempt of Quixotic proportions,but I don't know the right label for it.It is not an unassisted swim.I'm not sure if Cuba to FL is possible as an unassisted swim.It is a ...?
She called it "Extreme Dream." Perhaps "Impossible Dream" would have been more accurate. I give her credit for being willing to try this so publicly when it had such a high probability of failure.
No one can make any kind of swim unless the conditions are right. She ran into problems, it has happened to me and will happen to many more. The breaks have to be on ones side in order to complete anything.
I saw this in one of the stories:
She started this effort Saturday in Havana and lasted longer, and made it further, than in her previous tries, her team said. She swam this time for more than 41 hours.
41 hours? It had to be longer than that if she started on Saturday.
I think this relates to a couple of times that some swimmers attempted to swim accross the Atlantic Ocean. You can get out and get back in at the same spot?
I know people have done that, but I believe Nyad's swim was touted as being unassisted. You get out of the water that's definitely not unassisted. Not saying it's not incredibly impressive to be in the water for that long, but you can't call it unassisted with a straight face.
edit: I have a feeling the number quoted for how long she was in the water was just wrong. Another story I just read says "Nyad was not allowed to touch or be touched by any of the support crews or vessels." abcnews.go.com/.../story That would make more sense if she was attempting an unassisted swim.
