Diana Nyad on her fifth attempt to swim between Cuba and Florida
IF AT FIRST
YOU DON’T SUCCEED Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold.
Diana Nyad was a professional swimmer. She was in her twenties when she decided to swim around Manhattan. The first time she tried, she didn’t succeed. But she didn’t give up. She tried again and swam the 28 miles in less than eight hours. Then she had another goal: to swim from Cuba to Florida, a distance of 110 miles. Jellyfish She swam 79 miles in 42 hours. She didn’t stop to sleep. But she didn’t finish. Jellyfish attacked her, and the weather threw her off course1. Did she try again? Yes, but not until 33 years later. Nyad retired from competitive swimming in her twenties. For the next 30 years, she didn’t swim at all. She became a sportscaster2 and a journalist. But she didn’t stop all physical activity. She always kept in shape. Every Friday she took a 100-mile bike ride. In 2007, when Nyad was 60 years old, her mother died. She started to think about her own life. In the
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30 years that she didn’t swim, she always thought about the possibility of trying again. She didn’t want to die without achieving her goal. She started to train again. By the summer of 2011, she tried again—and failed again—after 29 hours in the water. She tried two more times—and failed to reach Florida each time. What kinds of problems did she face? There were attacks by jellyfish, bad weather, and breathing problems from asthma3. How did she solve the problem of jellyfish? For her fifth attempt, she wore a bodysuit and mask to protect against jellyfish stings. On August 31, 2013, after 53 hours of swimming, she reached the Florida shore, 35 years after her first attempt. Nyad achieved4 what younger and stronger swimmers could not. Nyad always tells people, “Never give up.” to throw off course: to send in an unintended direction sportscaster: someone who gives news about sports on the TV or radio 3 asthma: a medical condition that causes difficulty in breathing 4 to achieve: to succeed in doing something 1 2
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