Storms, cold and jellyfish stings slowed down Diana Nyad in her quest to swim 103 miles from Cuba to Florida, across the Florida Straits without a shark cage. Official observer Steve Munatones announced Diana Nyad was forced to abandon halfway the swim from Cuba to Florida.
Diana Nyad is the first swimmer to attempt cross the Florida Straits without shark protection. We’re confident Nyad’s attempt to swim 103 miles from Cuba to Florida is just the beginning. Tuesday early morning, Diana Nyad was forced to call it quits, after official observers decided she was putting her life in danger.
“We pulled her out of the water. The dangers were so great that we couldn’t risk anyone’s life, including her own” said Steve Munatones on “Good Morning America”. The official observer said that the 62-year-old swimmer survived two consecutive nights of storm, hypothermia and jellyfish stings.
When Diana Nyad’s team stopped her and pulled her out of the water, the 62-year-old female daredevil was shivering after swimming in 85-degree waters and her lips and tongue were swollen from salty water.
“We had a very, very large squall” said Mark Sollinger, director of operations for Nyad’s team. “We actually even call it a front, move into our location very, very rapidly so that combinations of things made it very, very, very dangerous, not only for Diana but any other member of our team in the water” Sollinger told CBS News.
“This morning as a team we decided that to continue after we had been through for another 28 to 40 hours just wasn’t going to make sense on a lot of levels, including the overall safety” of everybody involved Sollinger added.
The endurance swimmer told her team she didn’t want to stop her swim from Cuba to Florida at that point. Candace Hogan, crew member, said everybody knows Diana Nyad’s “mind can handle” the swim. “But there will always be a point where a human body can’t go any farther. What no one knows is where that line is drawn in Diana Nyad” Hogan added.
Diana Nyad turns 63 years this Wednesday. It would have been a great birthday present for the endurance athlete to complete the 103 miles swim from Cuba to Florida. This is her third attempt since last year to become the first person to swim across Florida Straits without a shark cage.
