Cuba-to-Florida swimmer says she has no regrets

(CBS/AP) KEY WEST, Fla. - Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad said she was disappointed her fourth attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida failed, but said there was nothing she could have done better.

Nyad, who is turning 63 on Wednesday, appeared tired but in good spirits when she spoke to reporters upon arriving at shore in Key West Tuesday. She cut her journey short at around 1 a.m. that morning after swimming 48 miles and more than 60 hours at sea.

"I'm not going to get that moment I dreamed of for so long," she said, but remained optimistic about her accomplishments.

"The dichotomy of it all is that this is history out here," she added. "No one has ever done it. In this day and age, the Earth is pretty small. Every mountain has been climbed ... but this piece of ocean has never been swam across."

Diana Nyad out of the water, fourth attempt to swim from Florida to Cuba over
Exercise counselor on Nyad: This is her Mt. Everest

After addressing the crowd, she lay on the sand and was given oxygen and intravenous fluids.

Diana Nyad after she was pulled from the water. She had been swimming for more than 60 hours before the swim was ended.

/ Christi Barli

The operations director with Nyad's team, Mark Sollinger, told CBS News he made the decision to pull Nyad from the water early Tuesday at 12:55 a.m. He said although Nyad wanted to get back into the water, repeated jellyfish stings -- her lips and one eye was swollen -- as well as thunder storms made the trek too dangerous.

"I'm not a quitter, but the sport and this particular ocean are different than they used to be," Nyad said. "These jellyfish are prolific. And, you know what? To me, there's no joy in that."

In a blog posting, crew member Candace Hogan wrote that Nyad angrily shook her head after being pulled from the water and planned to return to finish the swim after the storms subsided.

"When can I get back in?" Hogan quoted the swimmer as saying. "I want full transparency that I was out. But I have plenty left in me and I want to go on."

Before talking to reporters, she took one more ceremonious plunge in the water, swimming a short distance to Key West's rocky shoreline.

28 Photos

Cuba-to-Fla. swimmer pulled from water

Despite the strain the swim took on her body, Nyad said on Key West she felt absolutely fine and that her muscles weren't even sore.

"There is no doubt that I'm in better shape now at 62 than when i was in my 20s," she said to applause.

In 1978, American marathon swimmer Walter Poenisch swam from Havana to Marathon, Fla. in a shark cage made out of aluminum tubing and chicken wire that broke apart in the rough seas. The 65-year-old Poenisch was a former cookie baker from Grove City, Ohio, who used flippers and snorkels during the swim. Reports later surfaced that said he had faked previous marathon swims by travelling part of the distance in a boat.

(CBS "This Morning's" report about Nyad calling off her swim on the fourth day)

Australian Susie Maroney successfully swam the Straits in 1997, but she used a shark cage. In June, another Australian, Penny Palfrey, made it 79 miles (127 kilometers) toward Florida without a cage before strong currents forced her to abandon the attempt.

Nyad had been training for three years for the feat. She was accompanied by a support team in boats, and a kayak-borne apparatus shadowing her to keep sharks at bay by generating a faint electric field. A team of handlers was on alert to dive in and distract any sharks that made it through.

She took periodic short breaks to rest, hydrate and eat high-energy foods such as peanut butter.

[hush_puppy]

Her 15 minutes are up. Somebody please tell her to give us a break.

[foo8259]

You've come a long way baby! I still haven't seen a report of how many straight line miles the actual "Straits" course is -- 80 miles 90?

[akibeel]

So this is what, her 100 try at this? I believe in the saying if first you don't succeed, try try again but enough is enough. YOU AREN'T GOING TO MAKE IT. Stop wasting your time, get an infinity pool and play there or be the poster child for jellyfish repellant.

[randomites]

I wonder if Michael Phelps would like to take a shot at this thing. He could probably do it in 2 or 3 hours. ;)

[enough-already]

Then again, probably not. He's used to swimming in a nice clean, heated pool, not an unpredictable, jellyfish infested ocean. Ya' think?

[zwaggsy]

And if she had succeeded everyone would queuing up to share the limelight with her & she'd be up to her eyeballs in sponsorship deals. Funny thing is I bet that a lot of the critics here are the sort who moan about the lack of adventurous types in this modern age with no sense of ambition & no desire to take risks!

Reminds me of our Conservative Party (UK)"You do all the work, take all the pain & loss of social life. Succeed & We'll skank a chunk of the credit for your success, fail & we'll deny all knowledge of you".

People these days are quick to bask in the glory of other peoples victory's & even quicker to degrade & ridicule their failures.

[Jaylah54200]

While I do admire her tenacity, I can't help thinking that there's something a bit unhinged about this. Sort of like the runner who finally crosses the marathon finish line, legs shaking so badly they can't stand up, and with sh*t dribbled down both legs.

She's done this before. She knows about the sharks and the jellyfish. That's why she had the shark-repellant boat this time. Okay, I understand not wanting to use flippers, as that would be "cheating." But since she knew about the jellyfish, how about a full-face mask, gloves and booties that would keep the jellyfish from stinging her?

I mean, when you KNOWINGLY subject yourself to harm, quite possibly even death, that's not sane.

"Every mountain has been climbed ... but this piece of ocean has never been swam across."

Well, yes. But neither has the Atlantic or Pacific. Had she managed to make it to Florida, would she have tried one of those next?

[foo8259]

Surprised she is alive -- I just read about this "Box Jellyfish" thing: The Box jellyfish, or "Sea Wasp" is considered the most venomous marine creature alive, it carries enough venom to kill 50 men at one go.

[JohnStockton77]

What is the point of doing this? Who would want to repeat it anyway? What practical purpose does this serve? Why risk health over something like this? I just don't get it what drives people to do such useless meaningless things.

[foo8259]

"What practical purpose does this serve? Why risk health over something like this? I just don't get it what drives people to do such useless meaningless things." Just to make The Guinness book of records?

[Ulgnud]

To be sure she will have to make the call for another try. If she does I hope she makes it. This is how records and progress is made. Sooner or later someone will complete the challenge Congrats to her accomplishments this ear and hope the next time she makes it.

Speaking of jellyfish. I wonder if there could be some sort of sweeper going ahead of her to move them aside?

[Transatlantique]

Maybe if they hadn't followed her natural selection would have been in place where the elements or something else could end her pain and silly genetic desire to achieve basically nothing. Meth addicts call it "tweaking."

There are boats with motors, and they are designed to take humans from one body of land to another. We don't have to swim in shark infested waters with jellyfish, okay.

Gee, I think I'll see if I can walk across the country, but I know that there are machines which can take me across without the trauma. That is because I'm smart, and the stupid thing to do would be to try and walk. I feel sorry for this woman, like I feel sorry for those involved in the Olympics for the same stupid reasons, and that is to accomplish nothing.

[JohnStockton77]

I totally agree. Many people expend enermous amounts of energy and time in their precious short lives, and even risk their lives--all for nothing significant in the end. Over half the Olympics are about this.

[tmonta67]

You're out of chips, and there's a commercial on. Put down the remote and waddle over to the fridge for some Rocky Road (about as far as you'll ever walk, we get it).

[js555554]

Made it a lot further than I could have. Go her...