Diana Nyad
Diana Nyad
Diana Nyad /ˈnaɪˌæd/is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam around Manhattanand in 1979 when she swam from North Bimini, The Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida). In 2013, on her fifth attempt and at age 64, she became the first person confirmed to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage, swimming from Havana to Key West. Nyad was also once ranked thirteenth among US...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth22 August 1949
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
This is a lifelong dream of mine and I'm very very glad to be with you,
I want to see all the countries in the world and learn all the languages. I want to have thousands of friends and I want all my friends to be different. I want to play six instruments. I want to be the best in the world at two things. I want to be a great athlete and I want to be a great surgeon. I need to practice very hard every day. I need to sleep as little as possible. I need to read at least one major book every week. And I need to remember that my seventy years are going to go by too quickly.
From age eleven to age sixteen I lived a spartan life without the usual adolescent uncertainty. I wanted to be the best swimmer in the world, and there was nothing else.
The mantra I used was 'find a way.'
I have an uncompromising relationship with my goals.
The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life
Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports. It's ironic because millions of people who swim as their regular exercise love the meditation aspect of it; you don't wind up with any orthopedic injuries. But when you swim at a world class level for hours and hours - the loneness of the long distance runner.
There is... nothing greater than touching the shore after crossing some great body of water knowing that I've done it with my own two arms and legs.
Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports.
It's all authentic. It's a great story. You have a dream 35 years ago - doesn't come to fruition, but you move on with life. But it's somewhere back there. Then you turn 60, and your mom just dies, and you're looking for something. And the dream comes waking out of your imagination,
I have three messages," said the breathless Nyad."One is we should never ever give up. Two is you are never too old to chase your dreams. And three is it looks like a solitary sport but it takes a team.
A lot of athletes have this sort of invincibility: [The jellyfish] should worry about me. I don't worry about them. I'll just swim right through them.
But for each of us, isn't life about determining your own finish line?
When I walk up on that shore in Florida, I want millions of those AARP sisters and brothers to look at me and say, 'I'm going to go write that novel I thought it was too late to do. I'm going to go work in Africa on that farm that those people need help at. I'm going to adopt a child. It's not too late, I can still live my dreams.'