Nyad on Monday became the
first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, willing
her way to a Key West beach just before 2 p.m. ET., nearly 53 hours
after jumping into the ocean in Havana for her fifth try in 35 years.
Nyad pumped her fist as she walked onto the beach toward an awaiting medic before being guided to an ambulance.
Dozens of onlookers --
some in kayaks and boats, many others wading in the water or standing on
shore -- gathered to cheer her on as she finished the
more-than-100-mile swim.
Diana Nyad breaks distance record
Diana Nyad to try again
It was a long-awaited triumph for Nyad, who was making her fifth attempt since 1978 and her fourth since turning 60.
The first four tries were
marked by gut-wrenching setbacks -- if the rough, strength-sapping seas
didn't force her to quit, an hours-long asthma attack, or paralyzing
and excruciating jellyfish stings did.
But for this swim,
besides donning a suit meant to protect her against her jellyfish
nemesis, she wore a special mask to prevent jellyfish stings to her
tongue -- a key factor in her failed attempt last year.
She and her support team
didn't encounter many jellyfish this time. But she had plenty of other
challenges, and early Monday the fatigue was showing.
Around 7:30 a.m. ET
Monday, she was slurring her speech because of a swollen tongue and
lips, her support team reported on its website.
As the team called her
around dawn for her first feeding since midnight, she took longer than
normal to reach the support boat, the report said.
Though she slurred her
speech, the words were understandable. Before resuming her swim-crawl to
Key West, her team applied a "sting stopper" substance to her forehead
and cheeks in the hopes of warding off jellyfish stings.
"Don't get it on my nose or eyes," she said, according to her website.
Divers swam ahead of her, collecting jellyfish and moving them out of Nyad's path.
When instructed Monday
morning to follow the path that's been cleared for her, she flashed her
sense of humor, replying: "I've never been able to follow it in my
life," according to the website.
Nyad's home stretch
followed an overnight in which she became so cold, the team didn't stop
her for feeding until first light "in the hopes that swimming would keep
her warm," the website said.
Every stroke she swam
put her deeper into record territory. On Sunday night she broke Penny
Palfrey's record for the farthest anyone has managed on the trek without
a shark cage.
In 1997, Australian Susie Maroney completed the swim from within a shark cage. She was 22 at the time.
Nyad set out from Havana at 8:59 a.m. Saturday with a crew of 35, including divers to watch for sharks.
Nyad's first attempt to
cross the Straits of Florida was in 1978, when rough seas left her
battered, delirious and less than halfway toward her goal.
She tried again twice in 2011, but her efforts ended after an 11-hour asthma attack and jellyfish stings.
Last year, she abandoned an attempt about halfway through after severe jellyfish stings and a lightning storm put her in danger.
In the 1970s, she won multiple swimming marathons and was one of the first women to swim around the island of Manhattan.
Nyad said she was 8
years old when she first dreamed about swimming across the Straits of
Florida. At the time, she was in Cuba on a trip from her home in Florida
in the 1950s, before Fidel Castro led a Communist takeover in Cuba and
the country's relations with the United States soured.
The Los Angeles woman
has said this is her final attempt. She said on her website that she
wants to prove "it's never too late to chase your dream."
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