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Nyad closes in on completing Cuba to Florida swim
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With her lips and tongue swollen, US endurance swimmer Diana Nyad edged closer to Florida yesterday in her attempt to become the first person to swim the treacherous waters from Cuba to Key West without a shark cage.
Nyad has made it farther than in any of her previous four tries, and she was about 8 kilometers from Florida yesterday morning, according to her representatives. She was on course to swim about 180 kilometers and expected to arrive in Key West late yesterday between 4pm and 6pm.
Doctors who are traveling with a team of Nyad supporters said her swollen lips and tongue were causing her speech to be slurred and they were worried about her airways, but they have not intervened, according to a post on Nyad’s official website.
Nyad’s journey began on 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.
She had gotten very cold overnight, her team said, so they decided not to stop her to eat and drink in hopes that swimming would keep her warm.
“I admit there’s an ego rush,” Nyad said before the swim began. “If I — three days from now, four days from now — am still somehow bringing the arms up and I see the shore ... I am going to have a feeling that no one yet on this planet has ever had.”
Nyad, who recently turned 64, tried to swim the Strait three times in 2011 and 2012. She had also tried in 1978.
Her last attempt ended amid boat trouble, storms, unfavorable currents and jellyfish stings that left her face puffy and swollen.
This time she wore a full bodysuit, gloves, booties and a mask to help protect her from stings. Before the swim she said the suit slowed her down, but she believed it would be effective.
A 35-person support team is accompanying her at sea. Equipment that generates a faint electrical field around her is designed to keep sharks at bay, and a boat drags a line to help keep her on course.
Australian Susie Maroney successfully swam the Strait in 1997 with a shark cage, which besides protection from the predators, has a drafting effect that pulls a swimmer.
In 2012, Australian Penny Palfrey swam 127 kilometers toward Florida without a cage before strong currents forced her to abandon the attempt. This June, her countrywoman Chloe McCardel made it 11 hours and 14 miles before jellyfish stings ended her bid.
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