Supported by a 35-member team that included navigators, medical staff, shark spotters and her handlers, she spent more than 53 hours in the shark and jelly-fish infested water and swam 110 miles. In addition to 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 one of her failed attempts. There were other gut-wrenching setbacks including rough, strength-sapping and nausea-creating seas and hours-long asthma attack. But it was probably the paralyzingly and excruciatingly painful sting of the box jellyfish that was her biggest hurdle. Bigger even then the sharks lurking below.
Nyad is Naiad in Greek meaning nymph of the sea, a girl of the water. The perfect aptonym. She began swimming when she was in elementary school in Florida. Getting up every day at 4:30 in the morning, 365 days a year. Never needing the help of an alarm clock. Nyad had the focus and confidence that comes with total commitment. And many, many hours in the pool. Soon she was competing in National championships. By age 12, her parents were concerned she was a "fanatic." She didn't see any problem - believing that level of commitment is simply what you need to "get ahead in life." That only "hard work and focus" could shape her into Champion form. The setbacks were real and damaging - including sexual abuse by a coach - an all-too-common story in girl's athletics. A bout of endocarditis took her out of the pool and out of school for three months when she was a junior in High School. But she always just kept swimming. And swimming. She eventually won three Florida state high school championships, but it was increasingly apparent that speed and sprinting were not her top strength. She wasn't putting in Olympic-level times.
She was lost when she left swimming during college and bounced from school to school (he was asked to leave Emory after jumping from a fourth floor balcony without a parachute). She was looking for the next all-consuming passion. Then she found marathon swimming through a friend. A sport much better suited to her body type, physical attributes and swim stroke. This was swimming in the open, often cold, always rough water. Her first swim was in a Canadian lake in 1970 when Nyad was in her 20s. She was lubed down with 10 pounds of wool fat to guard against the cold. Her first solo swim was in Lake Ontario on 1974 where she swam continuously for 18 hours and 20 minutes. There was little prize money but expenses were usually paid and, most importantly, she was back swimming.
Her penchant for endurance swimming and quest for recognition first came together in 1975 at age 26 when she decided to become the first woman to swim around the island of Manhattan. This had only been done by men - the last one in 1927. She made it on her second try and broke the record by getting all the way around in 7 hours, 57 minutes. Coming at the time when women sports were beginning the long journey to serious recognition, when Billie Jean King was dominating women's tennis and title IX was being signed into law, Nyad became a media celebrity with that swim. She would go on to join ABC's Wide World of Sports as a commentator. But it is the swim through the Gulf Stream from Havana to Key West and the sheer grit, stamina and refusal to quit of that feat that are her true claim to fame.
She was 28 when she first made the attempt in 1978. She first settled on her goal of 100 miles in the open water - twice as long as anyone had ever done and three times longer than her longest swim to date of 18 hours. She scoured the world for the right route, eventually returning to her roots in Florida and settling on a swim from Cuba to the US - a route tinged with romanticism. First she had to put together a team. A navigator was needed to make sure they stayed on course through the strong currents, countercurrents and counterclockwise eddies. Shark experts were needed to develop a protocol to keep the predators at bay. Nutritionists, boats, trainers and elaborate equipment were all required. There even were lobbyist involved to coax the Cuban government into providing the necessary permissions and permits. And all of this required money. Fundraising was the first order of business.
Followed by a flotilla of media boats, Nyad endured 8 foot swells and the sting of jelly fish before being told that they had been dragged too far to the East by the Gulf Stream. After 41 hours in the water and dropping 29 pounds of body weight, land was no longer reachable. She bounced back quickly and planned to try again in 1979 but after 8 months of training, was denied entry by the Cuban government. Instead, they organized a swim from Bimini to Florida. Although less strenuous than the Havana/Key West swim, it is no cake walk. At 102 miles, it was the world distance record. She was 30 years old and although the Cuba swim still beckoned, she moved on the broadcast booth and toured the world on behalf of the Wide World of Sports.
It was 30 years later at age 60 that she returned to the dream. She had been a successful athlete and broadcast journalist but Cuba remained the one that had gotten away. She had stayed in amazing shape physically but she hadn't swum a stroke in 30 years. She started training in September 2009 and by October was doing 5 hour swims in the pool. She had to raise the money, recruit the team and gather the equipment all over again. She trained all Spring off the coast of California and in St. Maarten getting up to 12 hour continuous swims. After training and planning for more than a year, the 2010 swim was a bust when the Cuban government again stalled with the permits. Undaunted, it was on to 2011 when she made two attempts. In August in her first attempt that year, she made it 58 miles after 29 hours in the water. This time it was the sting of the boxjelly fish, a shoulder injury and some flawed navigation that led to a failed attempt. A new team of medical professionals and a new navigator led the charge for the second attempt in September. After 40 hours in the water, Nyad was forced to call it quits again after the deadly box jellyfish surface two nights in a row.
For 2012, Nyad adds to her high-tech gear and has a custom "stinger" suit made that will block the sting but without offering any flotation or warmth which would void the official time of the swim. She tapes on booties and gloves to protect her feet and hands and smears anti-sting gel over her exposed face. She hits the water for her fourth try on August 17, 2012. She is out again after 51 hours when storms and high seas make the crossing impossible. Her team starts to lose heart and begins to believe that a crossing is truly impossible. There are just too many variables to manage - the currents, the weather, the wind, the surf, the jellyfish. All have to be right and be right for three consecutive days - a veritable lifetime in the Gulf Stream. And meanwhile, other swimmers were making the attempt and failing. But Nyad refuses to give in. Others were starting to call her continued pursuit crazy, she called it "radical tenacity." The list of obstacles is long but the human spirit, according to Nyad, is indomitable. She flat out refuses to quit and quotes Thomas Edison in letters to her supporters: "Our greatest weakness is giving up. The most certain way to success is to try one more time."
And she knows that they are learning something every time. In 2012, the jelly fish found the one exposed area on her body - her lips. So her attempt in 2013 included a specialty-fit mouth guard and face mask that protected her lips and the inside of of her cheeks. Now no skin, not even for seconds.
On August 31, 2013, Nyad jumps into the Gulf from a pier at Marina Hemingway in Havana, Cuba. She was completely committed to finding a way to make it to Key West. After fighting seasickness, sleep deprivation and hallucinations, Nyad swims onto Smathers Beach in Key West, Florida. 53 hours and 34 years after her first try.
She had three things to say that day to the assembled wellwishers and media:
One: Never, ever give up.
Two: You're never too old to chase your dreams.
Three: It looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team.
Along this extraordinary journey, she had learned to be the person who "never, ever gives up." In her fourth book
"Find a Way", Nyad lays out her philosophy clearly. "Take every minute, one at a time. Don't be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment. Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self. Summon your courage, your true grit. When the body fades, don't let the negative edges of despair creep in. Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora's box syndrome. You can't stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain. You must set your will. Set it now. Let nothing penetrate or cripple it."
"Each day, not a fingernail better. No regrets."
"Brazen action, versus inertia, leads to people and events you couldn't have imagined.
"I failed and faltered many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened with the paralysis of fear and inaction. I may have been floundering out of the water, but I was insistent on living a fierce life. I was bold. And there was magic in it."
