KEY WEST, Fla. — Diana Nyad ended her fourth attempt to swim across the Straits of Florida on Tuesday, her decades-old dream thwarted, more than anything else, by jellyfish.
Storms brewing around her and repeated jellyfish stings forced her out of the water at 12:55 a.m., her crew said. She traveled by boat close to a rocky shoreline in Key West on Tuesday afternoon, just over 72 hours after setting out from Cuba. She made a final short swim to a waiting crowd.
“I’ve been dreaming of this crossing for 35 years now and tried it four times. And should I say that there’s no disappointment? No,” she said. “I’m not going to get that moment I dreamed of for so long.”
Nyad turns 63 on Wednesday and, all told, logged 41 hours and 45 minutes of swim time.
Her lips swollen from jellyfish stings, she
all but ruled out a fifth try at attempting the crossing, though she also had ruled out a fourth one after failing last year.
“I’m not a quitter, but the sport and this particular ocean are different than they used to be,” she said. “These jellyfish are prolific. And, you know what? To me, there’s no joy in that.”
Monday night proved the most challenging of all for Nyad, with team members fending off sharks, waves crashing in stormy weather, jellyfish sting after sting, and Nyad fighting off a lowered body temperature and the threat of hypothermia.
Nyad had been training for three years for the attempt. “I didn’t get that final moment, but what a magnificent experience it all was,” she said.
