KEY WEST, Fla. — Looking dazed and sunburned, New York-born endurance athlete Diana Nyad walked onto the shore yesterday, becoming the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage — on her fifth try.
Nyad, 64, swam up to the beach just before 2 p.m., about 53 hours after she began her journey in Havana on Saturday. As she approached, spectators waded into waist-high water to take pictures and cheer her on.
“I have three messages. One is: We should never, ever give up. Two is: You’re never too old to chase your dream. Three is: It looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team,” she said on the beach.
Doctors traveling with Nyad were worried about her slurred speech and her breathing, but didn’t intervene, according to Nyad’s Web site. She got onto a stretcher on the beach and received an IV before she was taken to a hospital.
“I just wanted to get out of the sun,” she said.