2012 Update: Gay Icon Diana Nyad Ends Her Cuba To Florida Swim UPDATE: Sept. 25th Nyad Ends Swim to Cuba....
UPDATE: Nyad stopped after 29 miles due to conditions.
Diana Nyad who I knew in NYC in the late ‘70’s early ‘80’s is swimming 103 miles from Key West to Havana. She began yesterday & is attempting the same swim that was completed successfully by Australian Susan Maroney in May 1997 but Nyad will be doing it without a shark cage. Instead she is accompanied on the 60 hour journey by a 45-member support team. Pretty brave for a 61 year old. Nyad tried the crossing from Cuba in 1978 when she was 28 but failed in the face of winds and heavy waves. "I'm standing here in the prime of my life,'' she said before jumping into the sea. "Now I look out at a dead, flat calm, so I think this is my day.'' She also wants her effort to help US relations with Cuba. Nyad never came out of the closet publicly because she was never in it. She has spoken on the issue of LGBT athletes in sports many times but her focus has always been on sports. Much like Billie Jean King her place as an athlete supersedes her place as a lesbian athlete something many gay people in sports dream of. Diana is a member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame & the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Updates to Come...:)
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I retired when I should have, when I was young, and a couple of years ago turning 60 I didn't want to feel old yet. I started thinking what if I went back, what if I went back to the elusive dream of Cuba. I started training and found it was in my heart and in my body. I want to be there to say we have many, many years of vitality and strength and service left in us.
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