Nyad May Attempt Another Cuba To Keys Swim
MIAMI (CBS4) – After failing to complete her goal of swimming from Cuba to Key West last month, marathon swimmer may be ready to give it another shot.
According to Cuban authorities, Diana Nyad has called a press conference in Havana for Friday "before once again beginning to swim across the Florida Straits." A representative for Nyad confirmed she will attend the conference.
On August 7th, Nyad attempted the 103 mile crossing without the aid of a shark cage but called it quits after she had covered 50 miles in about 29 hours. Nyad, who was 61-years old at the time, said asthma and shoulder pain contributed to ending her second try in 33 years to swim the Florida Straits. Doctors used inhalers and various medicines to try to open up her lungs as she was swimming, but the veteran swimmer said she "was so depleted of oxygen and I was limping along."
Nyad is now 62 after having a birthday since last month's swim.
In her first attempt in 1978, at the age of 28, she quit after being in the water for 41 hours and 49 minutes due to strong currents and rough weather that banged her around in the shark cage.
Had the second attempt been successful, Nyad would have broken her own record of 102.5 miles for an open-sea swim without a shark cage, set in 1979 when she stroked from the Bahamas to Florida.
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