Woman, 63, ends her dream swim bid
Source: Agencies |
August 22, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DIANA Nyad ended yesterday her fourth attempt in nearly 35 years to swim across the Straits of Florida, her dream of setting a record thwarted by storms, jellyfish stings, shark threats, hypothermia and swollen lips.
The swimmer was pulled from the water at 12:55am, as a thunderstorm raged and winds and waves tossed support boats.
In a blog posting, crew member Candace Hogan wrote that Nyad angrily shook her head after being pulled from the water and planned to return to finish the swim after the storms subsided.
"When can I get back in?" Nyad said. "I want full transparency that I was out. But I have plenty left in me and I want to go on."
Nyad, who turns 63 today, was making her third attempt since last summer to become the first person to cross the Florida Straits without a shark cage. She also made a failed try with a cage in 1978.
She started this effort last Saturday in Havana and lasted longer, and made it further, than in her previous tries. She swam this time for more than 41 hours.
"She realized that the obstacles against this swim were too great and agreed at dawn to return to Key West by boat," Hogan said.
Another team member Vanessa Linsley said the swimmer encountered a triple threat of obstacles.
"Instead of getting hit with one doozy they got hit with three," Linsley said, "They got hit with the weather, they got hit with the jellyfish and they got hit with the sharks all at the same time."
Nyad was stung nine times by box jellyfish on Monday night alone. She encountered two straight nights of storms. On Monday evening, the swimmer's crew was improvising ways to prevent hypothermia and to fend off further swelling of her lips and tongue.
She's swimming in 29.5-Celsius waters and because that is lower than the body's core temperature, it will reduce her body temperature over time. Her team said she had been shivering.
The swimmer was pulled from the water at 12:55am, as a thunderstorm raged and winds and waves tossed support boats.
In a blog posting, crew member Candace Hogan wrote that Nyad angrily shook her head after being pulled from the water and planned to return to finish the swim after the storms subsided.
"When can I get back in?" Nyad said. "I want full transparency that I was out. But I have plenty left in me and I want to go on."
Nyad, who turns 63 today, was making her third attempt since last summer to become the first person to cross the Florida Straits without a shark cage. She also made a failed try with a cage in 1978.
She started this effort last Saturday in Havana and lasted longer, and made it further, than in her previous tries. She swam this time for more than 41 hours.
"She realized that the obstacles against this swim were too great and agreed at dawn to return to Key West by boat," Hogan said.
Another team member Vanessa Linsley said the swimmer encountered a triple threat of obstacles.
"Instead of getting hit with one doozy they got hit with three," Linsley said, "They got hit with the weather, they got hit with the jellyfish and they got hit with the sharks all at the same time."
Nyad was stung nine times by box jellyfish on Monday night alone. She encountered two straight nights of storms. On Monday evening, the swimmer's crew was improvising ways to prevent hypothermia and to fend off further swelling of her lips and tongue.
She's swimming in 29.5-Celsius waters and because that is lower than the body's core temperature, it will reduce her body temperature over time. Her team said she had been shivering.
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