Los Angeles endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, 61, braved shark-infested waters to try to make a 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West, Fla., to prove that you're never too old to go for it.
But early Tuesday, she had to abandon the effort after 29 hours in the water battling ocean swells, shoulder pain and asthma, CNN reported.
Nyad was vomiting when she was brought aboard a support boat at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, the network said."I am not sad," she told CNN. "It was absolutely the right call."
Nyad started out with high hopes - and without a shark cage. Her motto: "60 is the new 40."
On Sunday, as she prepared to slip into the water at Marina Hemingway in Havana to prove that, Nyad said:
On Sunday, as she prepared to slip into the water at Marina Hemingway in Havana to prove that, Nyad said:
"I'm almost 62 years old.... I'm standing here at the prime of my life; I think this is the prime, when one reaches this age. You still have a body that's strong, but now you have a better mind."
Nyad had tried this swim before, in 1978, but had to quit after 42 hours in the face of huge waves.
The swim has been done before - Susie Maroney accomplished it in 1997.
But Maroney swam in a shark cage. She made her crossing in 23 hours, 47 minutes, a quick time that has led some to suspect that the cage helped her in some fashion.
Nyad did have some protection from the sharks that patrol the warm waters between Florida and Cuba.
Her support crew included kayaks equipped with underwater electrical shields that emit a frequency intended to shoo the sharks away. If that failed, divers were ready to intervene.
When Nyad announced her plans, she received a deluge of warnings.
"I get emails from people saying they are shark experts," she told the Los Angeles Times. "They say I will be like a dinner bell out there. I've started deleting those immediately."
Nyad had expected the swim to take about 60 hours, far longer than Maroney.
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