UPDATE: 29 hours in her incredible journey swimmer Diana Nyad abandoned her effort at 12:45 am this morning to swim the 103-mile trek from Cuba-to-Florida. The strong winds and currents were challenging the 61-year old swimmer and when she began vomiting she was pulled abroad the kayakers rowing beside her that where carrying her shark-repellant devices.
This morning when she was almost at the half way point she had already suffered through shoulder pain and asthma according to CNN. It was the strong currents that threw her 15 miles off course that forced her decision to quit.
ORIGINAL STORY: More than 30 years after her last big swim, Diana Nyad is back in the water off Key West. Nyad, a former commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition, became well known in the 1970s for her swim around Manhattan Island and, a few years later, for swimming from the Bahamas to Florida.
Now, at age 61, she’ll soon be attempting a 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West. She has been training relentlessly — with 9-hour, 15-hour, even a 24-hour swim.
And she’ll be doing it without a shark cage. Instead, an electronic shark-deterrent device called Shark Shield, which works by affecting the electro sensory system sharks use to detect bioelectric fields given off by living tissue, will accompany the marathon swimmer.
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