Swimmer to cross shark-filled Florida Straits

AMERICAN endurance swimmer Diana Nyad has begun her attempt to become the first person to swim the shark-filled Florida Straits without the aid of a safety cage.

In calm seas, the 61-year-old stroked north into the Florida Straits in her bid to set a new world record with a 165km crossing from Cuba to Key West in Florida.

The gruelling swim was expected to last about 60 hours.

Nyad stroked methodically through calm waters, nearby a specially equipped kayak that projects an electrical field to drive off sharks.

In the early hours yesterday, when she was swimming through the darkness, a message on her Twitter account read: “It’s dark, overcast, with a hazy moon overhead.”

She will be stopping each hour to take liquids and high-energy food, treading water. Rules for the record ocean swim attempt forbid her to touch any accompanying boat.

Nyad, who was raised in south Florida and turns 62 later this month, tried the crossing from Cuba in 1978 when she was 28, but failed in the face of winds and heavy waves.

The same swim was completed successfully in May 1997 by Australian Susan Maroney, who was 22 at the time.

But Nyad’s claim to a world record will be that unlike Maroney, she is doing it without a shark cage in the straits’ warm, shark-infested waters.

Weather forecasters have predicted doldrums-like conditions until Thursday in the waters that separate the United States and Cuba, giving her a good window to complete the swim.

Nyad says she is trying the swim to help older people realise they still can do many things.

“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,” she said.

“I want to be there to say we have many years of vitality and strength and service left in us.”