http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/health/nutrition/19swim.html?pagewanted=1
:eek: That’s pretty damn inspiring, right there. I’ll be rooting for her to make it!
Go, Diana! I have always enjoyed the fact that this swimmer’s last name is an alternate spelling of the word for a water nymph.
I guess it is good for some reason that escapes me. I don’t know if it is newsworthy.
Diana Nyad is 61?!? Jeez, that makes me feel OLD. Good luck to her. I hope her swim is blissfully free of bulls and whites.
Breaking athletic world records is just another day in the life of Cicero, I see. Better this than more Casey Anthony dreg.
My only question is, why? Why is she doing this? Why are people so interested that they’re willing to donate money to this above other causes? What will we learn that we don’t already know?
Why not? Sometimes it’s good to test your limits. It’s the same reason I ran a marathon last year.
OK, but your marathon running wasn’t front-page news on the Science Times, and presumably you didn’t have a 22-person support team paid for partly by donations and partly by your willingness to go up to $150K in debt.
The marker buoy in Key West says it is 60 miles from Cuba.
That would be 90 miles. Of course, that would be to the closest point in Cuba in a straight line, neither of which are applicable to the route she will be taking.
But my marathon wasn’t the longest unaided ocean swim in history. Setting records is news; people like it when people push beyond what is normally considered the limit of the human body and mind. And the story is even better when the person attempting to set the record is a 61 year old woman who has been in the public eye for the past 35 years.
Shit. I have been to Key West 15 times and got that wrong.
Bumping for update (Bumpdate?):
Well, she’s 64 now and she has said that this would be her final attempt, and without wanting to jinx her, it looks a lot like she’s going to finally make it! The most recent update on her websitefrom a little less than an hour ago said that she’s 2 miles away from landfall in the Keys.
Go Go Diane!
This is her third attempt isn’t it? Jelly fish stings made her quit twice before IIRC.
She’s definitely determined and it looks like she’ll finally make it. Good for her.
GO DIANA GO! GO DIANA GO!
This lady is freaking incredible!
I have a children’s book titled 100 Greatest Women in Sports by Phyllis Hollander, published in 1976. Diana Nyad is in it, and I believe she’s the only one still active on this kind of level. (Although I suppose Billie Jean King or Chris Evert might still play on some kind of seniors tennis tour or something like that.) Still, very impressive.
The book notes that “naiad” is a water nymph in Greek mythology.
By the way, I’d love for someone to update that book. I found it very inspiring as a girl, but when I reread it I noticed things like a complete lack of soccer players. (Understandable at the time, but now there would be a few of those and a few less figure skaters.)
she’s masked this time.
Thanks for the update, I had no idea this was happening now.
Having your name forever in the record books, or helping someone try to get their name in the record books, is a powerful incentive for some people.
Poor Diana though. I’d bet that there are many who, when they talk about this, will always begin with “The oldest woman to…” so people focus on her age instead of the accomplishment itself, as if younger people do it all the time and it’s not such a big deal.
Woo-Hoo!!! She made it!!!
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/02/3601292/diana-nyad-in-homestretch-of-record.html
Aaaaaand she’s done it!
beeb link