BREAKING: Diana Nyad Completes Historic Havana-Key West Swim Without Shark Cage

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press / CBS News

Nyad 1st to Swim to Florida From Cuba Without Cage

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 2, 2013 at 2:02 PM ET


KEY WEST, Florida — Diana Nyad has become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.

The 64-year-old Nyad stepped ashore in Key West on Monday just before 2 p.m. EDT, about 53 hours after she began her swim in Havana on Saturday.

As she approached the shore, spectators surrounded her in the water, taking pictures and cheering her on. She swam within a couple dozen feet of the beach and walked on to dry land. She looked dazed and sunburned.

It was Nyad's fifth try to complete the approximately 110-mile swim. She tried three times in 2011 and 2012. She had also tried in 1978.



Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau, via Associated Press

Diana Nyad, positioned about two miles from the coast of Key West, Fla. as she nears the completion of her 110 mile swim from Cuba on Monday.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/09/02/us/ap-cuba-swimming-to-florida.html

---

@CBSNews: On her 5th try, @diananyad completes historic swim from Cuba to Florida http://t.co/YHyhPtvttL

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57600985/nyad-completes-historic-cuba-key-west-swim/

Diana Nyad completes historic Havana-Key West swim

September 02, 2013

KEY WEST, Florida U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad's completed a historic Havana-Key West swim on her fifth attempt, 35 years after her first try.

Nyad's journey began Saturday morning when she jumped from the seawall of the Hemingway Marina into the warm waters off Havana. She has been swimming the Florida Strait ever since, stopping from time to time for nourishment.

Around 11 a.m. on Monday, mere miles from Florida, Nyad called her support boats over and said she had "bad abrasions" in her mouth from her jellyfish-protection mask, according to her team.

While treading water, she said: "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. Some on the team are the most intimate friends of my life and some of you I've just met. But I'll tell you something, you're a special group. You pulled through; you are pros and have a great heart. So let's get going so we can have a whopping party."

[JohnnyLib2]

1. Senior power!

[shenmue]

2. Yes!!!!!

Amazing and makes me so proud.

[livetohike]

3. So happy for her!

and

[BeyondGeography]

4. So much admiration for her

[DURHAM D]

5. Well done Diana.

[iandhr]

6. Wow

[theHandpuppet]

7. Woo-Hoooooooooooo!!

Congrats, Diana!

[Rebellious Republican]

8. Wow, just fuckin WOW.

[monmouth3]

9. I hope she will be on the cover of AARP, what a gal!....n/t

[theHandpuppet]

12. Hell, she should be on the cover of Sports Illustrated

A supreme athlete and a feat that's not likely to be repeated by anyone in my lifetime.

[monmouth3]

15. SI too...n/t

[Ms. Toad]

20. But - judging from the pitiful coverage today -

Not likely.

[mbuch64]

73. I saw

really good coverage on Al Jazeera America. If you have access, this is the best news channel currently available.

[Ms. Toad]

74. Their website, at least, doesn't have more than I have already seen.

What I was looking for was a video of the last 2-400 feet. As near as I can tell, only a local CBS station caught it.

Pretty pitiful.

[niyad]

72. sports illustrated, time, all the major magazines and all the sports magazines. but I won't hold my

breath

[JimDandy]

84. Yes on the cover of the SWIMSUIT issue. She deserves that

more than the emaciated models most of whom probably can't even swim 2 pool lengths, if that!

Congrats Nyad.

[gopiscrap]

10. Good for her

I remember being sophomore in college and watching reports of her first try.

[MNBrewer]

11. Good for her

Pretty inspirational.

[d_b]

13. here I am at 31

bitching about doing a mile on the treadmill

[Downwinder]

21. Remember the first time I swam a mile.

I was a teen and I thought I was going to die.

I can't even walk a mile now. Have to sit down every quarter mile.

[d_b]

23. I can't even swim

[Downwinder]

27. I get lag cramps in the bathtub now.

[JimDandy]

85. LOL...now that is sad. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

28. Until vertigo arrived about a year ago,

I was swimming a mile or more three times a week. I can imagine swimming ten miles, but not 110. That is an amazing accomplishment.

[Downwinder]

30. That is Wonder Woman, Amazon class.

[longship]

14. Woo Hoo! Senior power! R&K nt

[Scuba]

16. Age is just a state of mind. Awesome accomplishment for anyone of any age.

[riverwalker]

17. pics from the finish

via Twitter (since CNN missed it, reporter being unable to walk 200 feet down the beach, after Nyad just swam 113 miles )

(Photo credit) NBC 6
@JuliaBaggNBC6
6 Reporter.

[gopiscrap]

19. cool pics

thanks

[Ms. Toad]

18. WooHoo!!!

Go Diana!

And - #worstsportscoverageever!!! It took CNN forever to switch to live coverage, and once there was so bad that the actual landing was not visible through the palm trees.

Hours and hours of football (or other major (male) sports coverage for every little twist of fate), but no station I found chose to devote more than an hour - or to bring two cameras to the sceneso that when she comes into a slightly different location than anticipated they could actually capture her standing up and taking the three steps required to complete the swim.

[riverwalker]

26. CNN reporter

looked like he just got out of bed, was 300 feet away from the finish. How could he not know where it was with all the live feeds, drones, helicopters, boats, and crowds there?! The only photos are from a local NBC reporter.

[Ms. Toad]

31. I lost the local CNN reporter

when they switched to the live feed without audio (which was pitiful, as well), and their server couldn't handle another new connection when I realized that the national CNN feed wasn't going to catch it. I concur with your assessment of their reporter - I was watching him around an hour before she touched shore.

I was hoping for a video of her touching shore, standing, and taking the three unaided steps which she had to take for it to be official.

[LeftofObama]

46. Interesting.

I didn't know she had to take three unaided steps for it to be official. I learned something new today.

Regardless, what a remarkable accomplishment!

[Ms. Toad]

49. One of the articles while she was still a ways out from shore talked about it.

It mentioned that she couldn't swim to the pier for that reason, and that they had to be careful in their choice of a beach since she wouldn't likely be able to maneuver a rocky beach. (Unfortunately I can't find it to link to - but the behavior of her crew as she walks in obviously unsteady and reaching out occasionally to her teammates confirms it.)

[Patiod]

87. CNN dropped the ball on that one

Its coverage could not have been more inept. I was looking on all the channels for coverage - CNN, HLN, ESPN.

And it's not as if they didn't have two days to get a crew in place...

[Ms. Toad]

98. Oh - but aren't footbal replays

and commercials far more important that a first ever, once in a lifetime, swim?

So disgusted.

I did find this nice bit:

[Patiod]

100. Thank you so much, Ms Toad

Better late than never, and ironic as hell that this is branded CNN, but I still got a tear in my eye.

THIS is what I was frantically scanning the channels for!

[Ms. Toad]

101. You and me both!

I think that is the best one available - but there are a few more posted http://www.diananyad.com/blog/community-videos-of-arrival (people posted links in the comments, and Nyad's team gathered them in one of the blog posts).

[GoCubsGo]

22. Yay!!!

Never give up!

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. great accomplishment

[onestepforward]

25. WooHoo!!!

Congratulations Diana!

[emmadoggy]

29. What an achievement! Amazing. nt

[Daniel537]

33. Good for her.

Its a damn shame tens of thousands of Cubans haven't had the same luck.

[niyad]

68. LUCK???? how unbelievably insulting. LUCK had NOTHING to do with her amazing feat.

but nice of you to throw such a downer. how many cubans do you know who have the strength and ability and training and support to do what she did?

[Daniel537]

94. Save your faux outrage.

I personally know plenty of Cubans who have even more courage and determination than Ms. Nyad, because unlike her they had to survive days out at sea on rafts and makeshift vessels without a crew to rush them to safety if something went wrong. These brave people should not be ignored nor forgotten, despite your open contempt and disregard for them.

[niyad]

97. unlike your contempt for ms. nyad.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

34. Nyad: Proving that 64 years is the new 25! nt

[obxhead]

35. First known and acknowledged.

It is an amazing feat without doubt. However I'm sure it has been done before without life saving devices within a few hundred feet at all times.

[theHandpuppet]

40. Why is this amazing feat by a woman inevitably diminished by some here?

Some of the comments I've seen in these threads are disappointing, to put it mildly and politely.

[complain jane]

50. Ignore them.

There will always be downers no matter what the circumstance. Diana Nyad's an amazing woman and an inspiration and it's awesome to have some nice news for a change in the midst of all the chaos going on in the world.

[niyad]

69. you answered your own question: "amazing feat BY A WOMAN"

I can just about guarantee that, had a man done this, we wouldn't be seeing these "well, somebody else MUST have done it already, without equipment and support and. and. "

the usual sexist bs rears its ugly head.

[obxhead]

83. You can disagree with my post, but you do not have a right to claim I

Am a sexist.

She is an amazing person and an inspiration regardless of sex.

[niyad]

86. when somebody posts something sexist, I do have a right to point it out.

[obxhead]

89. Then point it out.

Show the exact text where I say a male would have done it better or that this is only special because a woman did it.

In fact, you can go through every post I have ever made on DU and will find no evidence I'm sexist in any way, because I'm not.

[niyad]

90. I did.

[PearliePoo2]

44. You're sure it has been done before.

Really...how sure are you? Links please.

[indie9197]

47. That is a pretty ignorant thing to say

Nobody could do it without help. She swam 110 miles for approx. 60 hours. Without guidance a person would be swimming around in circles. It is an amazing feat that will probably never be duplicated. (why would anyone want to go through that to be the second person to do it!?

The gal that did it in 1997 with a shark cage, while also an impressive feat, was obviously aided be the drag of the shark cage since she did it in 25 hours.

[complain jane]

52. Don't forget

Nyad has also attempted it four other times with a team in place guiding her and had to stop due to the box jellyfish stings and whatever else nature threw her way so I'm not sure why anyone would diminish her accomplishment.

[theHandpuppet]

63. I'm not sure why, either

But I won't hold my breath waiting for an explanation.

[niyad]

70. you already know the answer. we cannot have a woman accomplishing such a feat--might give

others some strange ideas. You know, like they might actually be strong and capable and determined, and successful. cannot have that, you know.

[TNNurse]

67. Mistaken

which is the polite word for wrong. You are mistaken. It has not been done before.

[Codeine]

82. Yeah, I'm sure 53-hour swims through shark-infested waters have been a normal part of human behavior

throughout history.



Stupid comment, obxhead.

[Capt. Obvious]

96. Or people in kayaks warding off the sharks

Kind of takes the air out of the hoopla

[riverwalker]

36. video after finish

Done by PBS, while CNN was stumbling around asking bystanders "Oh, you mean she's ashore now"?

[Cryptoad]

37. Warms my Cockles,,,,,,,, nt

[felix_numinous]

38. How inspiring!

[riverwalker]

39. photo of first steps

Dear CNN
I know this story is not as important as a NBA player stubbing his big toe, but to many people, it is a big deal. I know it is a holiday and all, and you never anticipated that Nyad would actually finish her attempt, but she did. So at the last minute you send a crew to cover her landing in a condescending "bless her little old lady heart" sort of way. Somehow you managed to screw up the the live coverage and now we have to rely on You Tube and Twitter to see the historic finish. The "little old lady" did something 20 year old men could not do. It was remarkable and inspiring.
Your coverage, not so much.

[theHandpuppet]

43. +1000!!

I'm really pissed off at the insulting "coverage".

[PearliePoo2]

45. Hope you sent that!

Tell it!!

[complain jane]

54. awesome letter!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

58. great letter! This amazing WOMAN deserves honors!

Glad I don't watch smellyvision. I would have been apoplectic if I saw her treated that way.

[MH1]

62. Excellent letter!

[niyad]

75. I hope you did indeed send this to cnn.

[DeschutesRiver]

92. They did the same to Annie Edson Taylor, the first to go over Niagra Falls, 63 years old.

She was a poor teacher, age 62, husband dead and facing an old age of destitution and the poor house. She thought that if she could be the first go over the falls and live, she would live off the fame to see her through her old age. And she was in fact the first to do it.

But her manager stole her money and famous barrel, & she spent her last money hiring people to find it for her. She would show up at the falls every year to sit at a table with a replica barrel, trying to get credit as the first one and some money but while she got a few dinky write ups and a few sympathy bucks, she died in poverty as she had once feared.

Now Annie is getting her due as the first, but in her own time, people didn't like the story that some crazy "old" lady had been the first one to live after going over the falls (at one point in desperation, she pretended she was younger, but then when people showed up all they saw was an old lady, so they didn't believe she was the Annie who did the feat). The guy who 10 years later was the second to do it and live? A younger stuntman named Bobby Leach and since he was the "first man" to do it, the reaction was what annie had hoped for but not got. What a hero! What an accomplishment! Amazing, let's get his autograph, pay him, shower him with credit and attention...blah, blah.

We haven't come as far as some think when the accomplishment of Diane Nyad is given such short shrift in our news cycle, and in favor of far less noteworthy events that seem to be promoted over hers because they are done by young guys who are part of the celebrity with some merit crowd. Anyway, well done Diane - history will remember even if the news cycle hasn't.

http://www.niagarafallslive.com/daredevils_of_niagara_falls.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Leach

[Cass]

41. She is the very definition of perseverance!

Congratulations to Diana!!

[seabeyond]

53. exactly. that is the word i grabbed also. in another thread. nt

[blackspade]

42. This lady rocks!

[dhill926]

48. incredible courage.....

wow! Can't even imagine....

[seabeyond]

51. finally. she can put this to rest. a job well done. hoo rah. nt

[NealK]

55. Oh wow, she's amazing.

And sure is braver than I am.

[FreeState]

57. She is a great example for our community and all people

(she is an out lesbian

[NealK]

60. Cool!

I didn't know that, thank you for the info. Great human being.

[BlueStreak]

56. This has to be one of the top athletic feats of all time

even for a younger woman.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

59. So impressive! funny how she has the perfect name...

Nyad=naiad=water spirit

Cool!

[Tx4obama]

61. Brava!

[erpowers]

64. Good For Her n/t

[Seeking Serenity]

65. Triumph of the human spirit. (n/t)

[hamsterjill]

66. I remember 1978

At that time, I remember wondering WHY anyone would attempt something like that. Thought it was kind of silly.

Thank you, Diana Nyad, for reaffirming to me today that you are (indeed) never too old to chase your dreams!

I get it now.....

[Hissyspit]

79. I was in high school when she first attempted!

Crazy.

[hamsterjill]

80. Me, too.

Senior year! I had other things on my mind!!! LOL

But I am so happy that she finally accomplished her goal!!! She's a strong, strong spirit!

[niyad]

71. congratulations on a truly remarkable achievement. thank you, diana, for reminding us that being

older does NOT mean having to give up one's dreams. you are truly an inspiration.

[steve2470]

76. awesome achievement, congrats Ms. Nyad ! nt

[olddad56]

77. Thank you Diana Nyad for creating a positive news story. Very rare these days.

[oldandhappy]

78. Well Done!!

Congratulations to Diane and her crew and team members and all the people who turned out to cheer her into land.

I am proud of the 64-year-old woman!!

[Surya Gayatri]

81. Astonishing persistence and perseverence!

People a third her age wouldn't be able to pull off this kind of exploit.

[Paladin]

88. Congrats, Ms. Nyad. Now: When can I get on a jet from Florida to Cuba......

....and enjoy a vacation there, just as I can every other place in the Caribbean? The restrictions against Cuba should have been dropped, decades ago. And spare me the lectures, Castro bashers---likely as not, the school clothing and supplies you bought your kids this year came from China or Viet Nam.....

[toby jo]

91. ! Fellow swimmer, here. Awesome, Diana. Too cool for words.

[Little Star]

93. That's amazing! k&r

[Tommy_Carcetti]

95. Just to put it in perspective....

Over the past 5 years, in an effort to exercise better, I've tried to swim at least a mile a week from the beginning of May until mid October, usually 500 yards 4-5 times a week.

I did the math, and in total, I've swum around 110 miles over that 5 year span. And I have to say, I'm pretty damn proud of myself for that type of commitment.

However, what it has taken me 5 years to do took Diane Nyad 2 1/2 days to do.

Way to go, Diane.

[Ms. Toad]

99. I swim about that in a year -

but it takes me about 45 minutes to swim a mile - she was swimming roughly 30 minute miles, for 53 hours.