KEY WEST (USA): Looking dazed and sunburned, US endurance swimmer Diana Nyad walked on to the Key West shore on Monday, becoming the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.
Nyad arrived at the beach about 53 hours after she began her swim in Havana on Saturday.
As she approached, spectators surrounded her in the water, taking pictures and cheering her on. Once on the beach, she was put on a stretcher and received medical treatment, including an IV. Her lips were swollen.
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.
Her last attempt was cut short amid boat trouble, storms, unfavourable currents and jellyfish stings that left her face puffy and swollen.
Nyad told supporters a silicone mask she wore to protect her face from jellyfish stings caused bruises inside her mouth, making it difficult for her to talk.
Doctors travelling with Nyad were worried about her slurred speech and her breathing, but they didn’t intervene.
Nyad’s journey began on Saturday morning when she jumped from the seawall of the Hemingway Marina into the warm waters off Havana. She stopped from time to time for nourishment.
”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 tried the swim the Florida Strait three times in 2011 and 2012. She had also tried in 1978.
This time she wore a full bodysuit, gloves, booties and a mask at night, when jellyfish rise to the surface. Before the swim, she said the kit would slow her down, but she believed it would be effective.
The support team accompanying her had equipment that generated a faint electrical field around her, which was designed to keep sharks at bay. A boat also dragged a line in the water to help keep her on course.
Nyad first came to attention in 1975 when she swam the 28 miles around Manhattan in just under eight hours. In 1979 she swam the 102 miles from North Bimini, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida, in 27.5 hours. (AP)
