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Diana Nyad setting out on her swim from Cuba on Friday. AP Photo/Javier Galeano

Jellyfish foil 62-year-old swimmer's Cuba to Florida attempt

US swimmer Diana Nyad has abandoned her latest attempt to become the first person to swim across the Florida Straits without a shark cage.

ENDURANCE ATHLETE Diana Nyad ended her swimming ultramarathon from Cuba to Florida today after medics warned another painful sting from a Portuguese Man o’ War could be life threatening, Nyad team members said.

Nyad was very swollen from multiple stings to her face and body, said Vanessa Linsley, who worked on Nyad’s team.

“She’s pissed. Nobody blames her. There isn’t anything that can change this … there’s nothing that has to do with your swimming capabilities. You can’t control mother nature,” Linsley said.

The 62-year-old swimmer had completed at least 79 kilometres of the 166-kilometre passage of the treacherous Florida Straits. She soldiered through the stings, at one point cutting eye and mouth holes through a swim cap she wore over her face to prevent future stings.

But by late morning, medics warned toxins from the stings were building up and another sting could be serious.

In a Facebook posting, Nyad’s team said she called out to her team from the water, saying medical experts told her not to go another two nights in the water.

According to the post, Nyad told her team: “But for each of us, isn’t life about determining your own finish line? This journey has always been about reaching your own other shore no matter what it is, and that dream continues.”

Nyad starts her swim: “How many times do you get to feel this alive?”

Nyad was making her second attempt in as many months at the Cuba-Florida crossing, a lifelong dream that she first tried as a 28-year-old back in 1978, when she swam inside a steel shark cage for about 42 hours before ending the attempt. A cageless attempt this past August fell short 29 hours in when, gasping for breath, Nyad threw in the towel after an 11-hour asthma attack she blamed on a bad reaction to a new medicine.

Australian swimmer Susie Maroney successfully swam the shark-filled waters from Cuba through the Straits and to the Keys in 1997, though she used a cage. Nyad was trying to become the first to finish it without a cage.

Earlier in her latest swim, Nyad received oxygen and a steroid shot from her doctors and was treading water while she recovered from the stings.

After that, her team said in a website update that a so-called “staged swim record” would still be valid as long as she was on the boat only for treatment and not to rest — rather than a nonstop record.

Nyad’s website said she spent the night trying to recall favorite songs and thinking upbeat thoughts while slipping through the waters under a nighttime sky bristling with stars and a sliver of a crescent moon.

The swimmer faced other obstacles aside from the man o’ war stings. On Saturday, handlers spotted barracudas in the area, and she got a visit from a curious Oceanic white tipped shark that was shooed off by a support diver.

Without a cage to protect her, Nyad relied on equipment surrounding her with an electrical field that is harmless but deters most sharks. Her divers are there to gently discourage any who make it through. But not all encounters with marine life were unpleasant. Earlier in her journey, 10 pilot whales emerged in the distance ahead of the swimmer, according to one team tweet.

The Los Angeles woman regularly paused to rest and refuel on food that her assistants passed to her in the water, but without getting on the boat. To maintain her strength she ate pasta, bananas, bite-size pieces of peanut butter sandwiches, and high-calorie and high-carbohydrate drinks.

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8 Comments
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    Mute John Fagan
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:45 AM

    If the DUP are criticising you then you know you are doing something right.

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    Mute A Well Known Comical Stereotype
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:33 AM

    Gary Lineker – my new favourite English footballer.

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    Mute Joe Johnson
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:39 PM

    @A Well Known Comical Stereotype: Thought the DUP were very busy looking through the Windsor Framework Agreement. Obviously not.

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    Mute Darren Lynch
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    Mar 9th 2023, 2:37 PM

    @A Well Known Comical Stereotype: na, he scored against us in the 1990 world cup. Cant forgive him!!!

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    Mute Bri Lyons
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:57 AM

    Pity the DUPs ancestors didn’t follow their own anti immigrant stance and not cross on boats to Ireland

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    Mute Con Cussed
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:42 AM

    Easy for the DUP to call him a lefty. Attila, the Hun is left of the DUP thinking.

    He’s on a free salary for not adhering to democratic principles and forming an Assembly.

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    Mute SquideyeMagpie
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:34 AM

    Wasn’t sure but now I know he was right

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    Mute Michael Garvey
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:41 AM

    @SquideyeMagpie: yup. Good old Gregory. Scandalous apparently to treat people in dire circumstances with basic compassion.

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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:14 PM

    The Tory Party and the BBC had no problem when Lineker criticised the Human rights record of Qatar which hosted the World Cup. Lineker now faces the Director General of the BBC Douglas Davie who was politically appointed by the Tory Party as he was a major financial donor to the Conservative Party. Seems free speech is a one way street at the BBB and the Tory government. Well done Gary Lineker.

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    Mute ConPhoto
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:44 AM

    something is wrong somewhere if a football pundit’s comment about an issue, is getting more coverage and reaction than that of the actual issue.
    Bear in mind the issue involves men, women and children’s lives.

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    Mute Owen G Mc Ginley
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:13 PM

    I suppose the DUP will now add this demand of a Salary reduction for Lineker, as the 8th test to be met for accepting the new Windsor Protocol Agreement

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    Mute Con Cussed
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    Mar 9th 2023, 2:00 PM

    @Owen G Mc Ginley: They are complaining about Lineker and his salary and the same person sits on his … and receives a salary for doing nothing! Unbelievable the way they preach what about, “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you”?

    On the other sides, does this mean that the DUP will be moving back to Scotland via Rwanda?

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    Mute Joe Johnson
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    Mar 9th 2023, 6:45 PM

    @Owen G Mc Ginley: At lest Gary Lineker goes to work, unlike the DUP who refuses.

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    Mute Brian Boru
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:37 AM

    It’s not often I agree with the DUP!

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    Mute Con Cussed
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:43 AM

    @Brian Boru: Well says a lot about you!

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    Mute Ciaran Forde
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    Mar 9th 2023, 2:06 PM

    @Brian Boru: another boring comment from Brian Boru.

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    Mute Brian Boru
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    Mar 9th 2023, 4:38 PM

    @Ciaran Forde: You want everyone to have the same opinion, how boring is that.

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    Mute JustBEERbarry
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:37 AM

    Imagine the dup aren’t happy with something or someone. SEACHT

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    Mute A$AP ETH
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:49 PM

    Showing any bit of empathy these days is dismissed as ‘lefty’ behaviour. Sad.

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    Mute Karl Phillips
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:38 PM

    The DUP, squatters in another country. We are getting very near the F word folks.

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    Mute Leonard Barry
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:51 PM

    DUP and Braverman two of a kind!!!

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    Mute Eugene O Doherty
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:58 PM

    @Leonard Barry: agree, immigrants to another country

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    Mute John Mcmahon
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    Mar 9th 2023, 1:34 PM

    Always liked Gary Lineker being a Spurs fan
    But like him more now
    A nice human being

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    Mute Keth Warsaw
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:53 AM

    Champaign communist if ever, some might say. Not I, as I couldn’t care less about this milky minded individual locked tight within his guilded cage far away from reality of the normal hardworking joe.

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    Mute Tom Hogarty
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:25 PM

    @Keth Warsaw: what would it take for you to care less enough to hold off on the inane, uninteresting, bland and negative comments?

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    Mute Keth Warsaw
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    Mar 9th 2023, 1:35 PM

    @Tom Hogarty: I think calling my comments inane and uninteresting are a tad strong. Same comments grabbed your attention. As for negativity…I’d rather reflect the realities of life and build upon sound ground than be an idealistic dreamer building upon Sand. But I thank you for your interest in my bland comments.

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    Mute Calvin James
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:01 PM

    Waiting patiently for the free speech brigade to rally behind Gary

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    Mute Brian Dunne
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:14 PM

    @Calvin James: you mean the free speech brigade who are trying to tell him to shut up because they don’t agree with him?

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    Mute Jen Mc
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:26 PM

    @Calvin James: I think you’re confused as to who the free speech brigade are pal.

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    Mute A Well Known Comical Stereotype
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:45 PM

    The Tory “Stop the boats” slogan and the associated BS are carbon copies of the trick used in Australia by the Aussie Tories. Braverman’s “We will decide who comes to this country” is exactly what John Howard said. The attacks on Labour along the lines of ‘you won’t protect our borders’ is the same. It won a few elections for the Aussie Tories. I think this won’t be enough to save them in the next election but it might. It is outrageous.

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:37 AM

    For a nano second i thought there might be something worth reporting here / something something the DUP / Immigration policies in the UK / Christ how lazy / bad are Irish media becoming / it’s not like there aren’t an enormous amount of very important issues facing Ireland daily / this is just lazy / go thru the motions posting of UK click bait nonsense

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Mar 9th 2023, 11:46 AM

    @Dave Hammond: Welcome, in case you’re wondering the toilet is all around you.

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Mar 9th 2023, 12:58 PM

    @thesaltyurchin: cheers it’s the exit doors I’m looking for …

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    Mute A$AP ETH
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    Mar 9th 2023, 1:42 PM

    @Dave Hammond: tell you what, exit doors are on the way out.

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    Mute Keth Warsaw
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    Mar 9th 2023, 1:49 PM

    If he was an intellectual, I might take his comments seriously, and reflect upon them. But this is a former footballer who advertised crisps.

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    Mute Dick Barrett
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    Mar 9th 2023, 2:15 PM

    I would say that as Gary Lineker is a BBC sports and not a news commentator, he can say what he likes about other matters, even if what he says is a bit OTT like in this instance.

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    Mute Liam
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    Mar 9th 2023, 5:37 PM

    The DUP should help sprinkle the football pitches for the weekend matches with their tears.

    10
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    Mute Michael Powell
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    Mar 9th 2023, 3:24 PM

    It will be interesting to see just how Foxy BBC is prepared to be about this.

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