Diana Nyad, 61, to Swim from Cuba to U.S. to Prove 'It's Never Too Late'
She might be old enough for an AARP card, but that’s not stopping 61-year-old Diana Nyad from attempting to swim 103 miles through shark-infested waters from Cuba to the U.S. without a shark cage. If Nyad succeeds, she will be the first to have ever accomplished the feat.
"I'm almost 62-years-old and I'm standing here at the prime of my life," she said as she stood on the shore before beginning her swim. "I think this is the prime. When one reaches this age, you still have a body that's strong but now you have a better mind."
Nyad, who holds several long-distance swimming records and was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, attempted the swim inside a shark cage in 1978, but had to stop due to the weather.
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The swim from Cuba to the U.S. has never been accomplished without the use of a shark cage – and with good reason. According to the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week website, there have been over 200 shark attacks near Florida and the Caribbean islands between 2000 and 2006.
"There's no getting around the fact that we're in an ocean here where some dangerous species of shark swim," she said at the news conference.
In order to protect Nyad against potential shark attacks, she said that she will be accompanied by six kayakers with electronic devices attached to the bottom of their crafts, which send out electronic signals designed to repel the sharks.
Despite the electronic repelling system, no sharks will be harmed, Nyad said. In an editorial published on CNN.com, Nyad expressed the importance of this part of her journey.
“We will not destroy any shark on our way from Cuba to Florida,” she wrote. “Our attitude is that these are beautiful, necessary animals. We need them. The oceans need them.”
Aside from shark-repelling kayakers, Nyad will also be accompanied by boats that will provide nourishment. She will rest every 45 minutes for food and water, but she will not be allowed to touch the boats.
The world-renowned swimmer has been training for over two years for this event. "I am a better athlete today than I was at 29," she told CNN.
“There’s a joke that 60 is the new 40. And it’s true,” Nyad said at a press conference. “We are a younger generation than the 60 that went before us. And I want to be there to say that we have many, many years of vitality and strength and service left in us.”
"I want to prove to the AARP crowd that it's not too late to go back and write that book or adopt that child.”
