In 2013, Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba (古巴)to Florida (美国弗罗里达州)without the help of a shark cage, at age 64.
Diana was born in New York City but moved to Florida after her graduation from college. She began swimming at the age of 10 and showed t and love for the sport from an early stage. Under the coach of Jack Nelson, the former (昔日的)Olympic swimmer, she won a lot of long-distance swimming competitions during the 1960s and 1970s. Diana became well-known for setting a new r for swimming around the island of Manhatan(曼哈顿岛)in1975 in a time of 7 hours and 57 minutes.
At the age of 28, Diana tried to swim from Cuba to Florida for the first time, but was unsuccessful after high winds forced her to give up the journey. After experiencing v injuries and health problems, Diana felt the need for new challenges beyond the pool. At the age of 30, she became a journalist in broadcast. Diana loved her new job, but from the bottom of her heart, there still was an u goal.
After 30 years of no swimming, Diana began training at age 60 with the goal of finishing what she started. In 2011, she failed the Cuba-to-Florida swim t, first making it 29 hours and then 41 hours. The swim was too difficult and full of danger. During the long and tiring journey, Diana had met with terrible storm and deadly sea animals such as sharks and box jellyfish (箱形水 母). But every time Diana failed, she was ready to fight back. In August 2012, after she had spent 60 hours in the water, a lightning storm and other problems stopped her for the fourth time.
In 2013, 35 years after her first try, the 64-year-old Diana planned to swim from Cuba to Florida for a fifth time. After 52 hours 54 minutes and 18 seconds, Diana completed the historic swim with the help of a crew of doctors, scientists and navigators on September 2. She finally became the first person to a the close-to-impossible goal.
In her book Find a Way, Diana sent us three messages:
⒈We should never ever give up;
⒉It's never too old to chase your dreams;
⒊The swim looks like an individual sport but a it needs a team effort.
