Diana Nyad: Swimming Through Adversity
April 21, 2014
Staying motivated to complete one specific goal for over 40 years is no easy task. The difficultly only intensifies when one must train for countless hours back and forth across a pool, staring down at a black line. For legendary distance swimmer Diana Nyad, the “moment of immortality” she felt after each of her grueling long distance swims rekindled her motivational fire every time she felt like giving up. Nyad has long been an accomplished swimmer: earning a state championship in high school, breaking the 20- mile world record swim from Capri to Naples, crossing Lake Ontario, swimming around Manhattan Island an hour under world record pace, completing 102 mile swim from Bahamas to Florida unassisted and without a shark cage. However, for all these achievements, one goal eluded her: swimming from Cuba to Florida.
In her first attempt in 1972 at age 29, Nyad entered HavanaHarbor protected by a steel shark cage. Soon, the weather turned treacherous. Persistently attacked by jellyfish and slammed incessantly by ocean currents and waves, Nyad went off course, towards Texas. After 79 miles and 42 hours, her crew pulled her out; the swim was a failure. Subsequently, Nyad completed the 102 mile swim from Bahamas to Florida and did not take another stroke for three decades. Deciding it was a good time to retire at the age of 30, Nyad became a TV personality and stayed in shape with 100 mile bike rides, but her failure constantly came back to haunt her.
It is much easier to keep swimming later in life than to maintain other sports. Marathon swimmers do not need to possess the physique of an Olympic swimmer like Michael Phelps; they only need to share the same mental fortitude and pronounced ability to tolerate pain. Open water swimmers like Nyad must learn to control their minds through bouts of excruciating pain or sickness.
The weather, the currents, and the dangerous sea creatures are but three of the impediments that face the open-water swimmer. The dangers of open-water swimming are clear. Three of Nyad’s attempts were stymied by some variable out of her control. Besides the sharks, jellyfish, waves, and the deprivation of solid foods (Nyad’s team made nutrition supplement beverages for her to drink every 45 minutes), the salt water was an inexorable obstacle. There was no way to avoid gulping it. When swallowed, the salt water abrades the tissue of the lips, tongue, and throat, swelling them shut, sometimes to the point where doctors may have to cut one’s throat open to allow air in. In Nyad’s case, one attempt was cut short due to the waves throwing her miles off course; another attempt was cut short due to extreme sickness and vomiting. In what seemed like her final attempt in 2012, Nyad was stung by a swarm of box jellyfish, one of the most poisonous animals in all of the ocean. Possible complications of their sting include cardiovascular collapse and cerebral hemorrhage if not treated. Nyad was pulled out and a medical technician jumped in to wipe away the gelatinous tentacles, only to be stung in the process. The technician injected himself with epinephrine and collapsed on deck. Nyad, who was screaming and gasping for air during the whole ordeal, continued swimming before being treated by a medical team from the University of Miami in the water. After treatment, she kept swimming before being stung again and was forced to stop. “This is the end of it. This is the end,” Nyad said after the failure.
Following the death of her mother when Nyad turned 60, something shifted inside her: a watershed in her career as a distance swimmer. Nyad had long been inspired to make the swim from Cuba when her mother took her to Lago Mar beach club and pointed toward Cuba. “It’s so close you could actually swim there,” her mother said. Letting this bubble in her imagination since that experience, Nyad would attempt the swim one more time, swimming with that “epic deflation” of failed attempts, driving her to succeed.
What drives someone to undertake such dangerous swims? Nyad’s motivation is much more complex than just trying to complete the challenge she had long been unable to accomplish. Much of her drive comes from her childhood and her unstable relationships with her family. Her father was a con-man who constantly lied and stole from people, forcing the family to move frequently. He also repeatedly attacked Nyad’s mother and abused Nyad sexually. Her parents’ divorce when Nyad was only a teen also helped her focus on her swimming, where she excelled. Her father had long pointed to the word “naiad” as derived from the Greek for the nymphs who swam in the lakes and rivers and the ocean to protect them for the gods. Her father claimed swimming was Nyad’s destiny. The abuse from her father also gave Nyad the drive to accomplish things because she thought, “I’m in this alone. I’m going to be taking care of myself.” The death of her mother further gave her a sense of urgency to complete the extreme journey. Nyad wanted the “thrill of commitment”, a magnificent goal that would consume all self-doubt.
On the morning of August 31, 2013, Nyad jumped into HavanaHarbor for the last attempt of her life. She had agreed with her team there would be no stopping for storms no matter how severe. With her specially designed mask protecting her from jellyfish stings, Nyad took her first stroke. Her first night in the mask was agony, forcing her to swallow so much salt water that she constantly vomited. She started hallucinating after becoming severely chilled while treading water for two hours that same night. With the current and conditions in her favor, Nyad was scheduled to arrive in Key West before sunset of the third day. Sure enough, after 53 hours, she approached the shores of Key West greeted by an enormous crowd of supporters cheering her on. With lips as swollen as a clown’s and salt encrusted on her skin, Nyad managed a few words: “
You’re never too old to chase your dream
— Diana Nyad
For Nyad, swimming through adversity was the only way for her to accomplish unprecedented feats in the water. Her darkest moments in life fueled her greatest success.