Frequent Traveler: Never Give Up

Never Give Up: Diana Nyad

Introduction and interview by MICHAEL SHAPIRO

OCCUPATION: Long-distance swimmer, author, motivational speaker

IDEAL GETAWAY: France by bicycle

LIFE-CHANGING JOURNEY: First to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida, at age 64

The first time Diana Nyad tried to swim from Cuba to Florida she was a week shy of her 29th birthday and at the peak of fitness. Yet currents swept her off course, and she didn’t make it. She was crushed.

Three years earlier Nyad had swum 28 miles around Manhattan in less than eight hours, setting a record. And in 1979, on her 30th birthday, she set a world record for open-water distance swimming, navigating the seas from the Bahamas to Florida, 102 miles, in a 27.5-hour swim.

Then Nyad didn’t swim a stroke, she says, for the next 30 years. As she approached her 60th birthday in 2009, she was re-ignited by her dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida. She attempted the Cuba-Florida swim twice in 2011 and once in 2012. A combination of choppy seas, asthma and potentially fatal jellyfish stings ended her quests.

But Nyad wouldn’t give up. She readied a crew for another attempt in 2013, at the age of 64. On Aug. 31, 2013, wearing a bodysuit and silicone mask to protect her from jellyfish stings, Nyad leapt off Cuba’s north shore and into the sea. After 53 hours of swimming, she staggered onto the sands of Key West. She’d finally made it. “You should never, ever give up,” she told a cheering crowd on the beach. “You're never are too old to chase your dreams.”

Is the will and desire that got you from Cuba to Florida something you were born with, or did it develop over the course of a lifetime?

It’s part of the human condition to have willpower. If we have it too easy, often we never find our limits unless we decide to go out and test those limits for ourselves and dig down to our true grit. I believe all of us have that within us.

You made it on your fifth attempt — what do you recall about reaching Florida?

That was a 35-year dream, finally staggering up onto that beach. Key West isn’t an easy place to get to, yet people came from all over the place, and they were weeping. I saw what they were seeing: someone who refused to give up. If we don’t give up, we’re going to find our way.

Above all is tenacity; engagement and tenacity are the two highest values in life. When I’m engaged, I’m happy. And if I’m tenacious, no matter what I do, it’s OK if I fail. I’m not afraid of failure; I embrace it.

If you’d never made it to Florida, would you have viewed your effort as a success?

I would have. Maybe it’s just sheer rationalization. As the failures mounted I had to start training for the philosophy of: “Isn’t it all about the journey, not the destination?”

What led you to try the swim again?

This whole Cuba dream surged in me at the age of 60. I’m still vital, I’m still in superb shape, I’m going to make use of it and chase the big dream of mine while I still can.

How has immersing yourself while traveling helped you connect with people all over the world?

First of all you see how small the world is. You think some poor guy in a fishing village in Thailand has nothing to do with you? You’re wrong. We are very close neighbors. Mostly people are good and want to help each other. Travel and being a citizen of the world has been a big part of my journey.

How did you learn that your grandfather was a champion swimmer?

We didn’t know any grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nobody. …I was hanging out to get a picture taken at Columbia, the Ivy League school. I was looking at these pictures from the 19-teens and 1920s. And I see one that says George Warrington Curtis. I thought, that’s odd, that’s my mother’s father’s name. And I start reading below that he was not only on Columbia’s swimming and track teams, but he was the first man ever to swim across Long Island Sound. I had just swum around Manhattan. I thought: wow, I never knew this.

Where do you like to go and what do you like to do?

I’m lucky. I’m speaking all over the world. In December 2017, I got two speeches in Stockholm. I’d never been to Scandinavia so I decided to go up to the Arctic Circle and see the northern lights.

If I’m going to go to Aruba, the windsurfing capital of the world, I’ll say, you know what, I’ve never windsurfed. So I go there, give my speech and then spend two days taking windsurfing lessons.

I love European city travel. My mother was Parisian. I’d love to live in France and ride my bike all around the country. I’d love to get to know Colombia better. It’s one of the prettiest places on earth. And I would love to boogie board down some rivers.

You recently started a group called EverWalk — what’s your goal?

In 2020 (co-founder and friend Bonnie Stoll) and I would like to walk 50 cities in 50 weeks. So every Saturday we’d wind up doing a 10-mile walk in, say, Minneapolis one week and in Indianapolis the next week. We want to develop 1 million Everwalkers around America to make walking part of their daily life. Clearly there’s a health element, but for us it’s more about empowerment and enlightenment. It’s about believing, dreaming what you can do.

You’re about to turn 70 — what do you want to do next?

I’ve always wanted to do a one-woman show. I’ve done shows in L.A. and Key West. Yesterday my agent said the Minetta Lane Theater in New York (an off- Broadway venue), a wonderful 390-seat theater, called and offered me a run. In the show, I never look at the audience and say, “Just don’t give up, and you’ll get there.” I just tell a story and you feel it. Now I’m going to have a chance to do it in New York, the dream of all dreams.

Travel and being a citizen of the world has been a big part of my journey.”