20 VERY MOTIVATING STORIES YOU MUST READ BEFORE GIVING UP ON YOUR BIG DREAM. (#3 Diana Nyad)

Previously on 20 very Motivating Stories You Must Read Before Giving Up Your Big Dreams. Click Here!

!Previously on 20 VERY MOTIVATING STORIES YOU MUST READ BEFORE GIVING UP ON YOUR BIG DREAM - See more at: http://historymakers116.blogspot.com/2013/10/20-very-motivating-stories-you-must_15.html#sthash.VZXXBeK4.dpuf

Previously on 20 VERY MOTIVATING STORIES YOU MUST READ BEFORE GIVING UP ON YOUR BIG DREAM - See more at: http://historymakers116.blogspot.com/2013/10/20-very-motivating-stories-you-must_15.html#sthash.VZXXBeK4.dpuf

#3 Diana Nyad

 Meet Diana Nyad, a woman who is the epitome of strength, courage and determination. She’s a distance swimmer, whose last remaining goal is to swim the channel between Cuba and the United States without a shark cage. She’s 64. She’s made four previous attempts, the last being halted by painful jellyfish stings she received to the face. Incredibly, she’s back to try again, this time embarking on a 103-mile trip from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. She swims—dodging sharks, poisonous jellyfish and treacherous waves. Just her, the water and a dream. Making it farther than she ever has, and breaking a distance record previously held by Penny Palfrey, who herself earned the title at the age 50. For these history makers, age is only a number, and proof that mental toughness is the key to keeping an insatiable drive—and never giving up.

Early life and education

Diana Nyad born August 22, 1949 to stockbroker William Sneed and his wife Lucy Curtis. Her father died when she was an infant and when Diana was three her mother married Aristotle Nyad, a Greek land developer who adopted Diana. The family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she began swimming seriously in seventh grade.

Beginning the Pursuit of her Dream

She was enrolled at the private Pine Crest School in the mid-1960s, swimming under the tutelage of Olympian and Hall of Fame coach Jack Nelson. She won three Florida state high school championships in the Backstroke at 100 and 200 yards (91 and 183 m).

Early Set-Backs

She dreamed of swimming in the 1968 Summer Olympics, but in 1966 she spent three months in bed with endocarditis, an infection of the heart, and when she began swimming again she had lost speed.

Back on Track Again

After graduating from Pine Crest School in 1967, she entered Emory University, but was eventually expelled for jumping out a fourth-floor dormitory window wearing a parachute. She then enrolled at Lake Forest College in Illinois, where she played tennis for the Foresters and resumed swimming, concentrating on distance events. She soon came to the attention of Buck Dawson, director of the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Florida, who introduced her to marathon swimming. She began training at his Camp Ak-O-Mak in Ontario, Canada and set a women's world record of 4 hours and 22 minutes in her first race, a 10-mile (16 km) swim in Lake Ontario in July 1970, finishing 10th overall. After graduating from Lake Forest College in 1973, with a degree in English and French, Nyad returned to south Florida to continue training with Dawson.

Taking on the Challenge of Distance swimming

Over two days in 1979, Nyad swam from Bimini to Florida, setting a distance record for non-stop swimming without a wetsuit that still stands today. She broke numerous world records, including the 45-year-old mark for circling Manhattan Island (7 hrs, 57 min) in 1975.

• 1974: In June 1974, Nyad set a women's record of 8 hours, 11 minutes in the 22-mile (35 km) Bay of Naples race.

• 1975: At age 26, Nyad made national headlines by swimming 28 miles (45 km) around the island of Manhattan (New York City) in just under 8 hours (7 hours 57 minutes.) An account of her swim, published the next day, stated Nyad was "5 feet six inches tall" (1.7 m) and weighed 128 pounds (58 kg).

• 1978: At age 28 she first attempted to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, one year after the Kennedy-era travel restrictions were lifted. Diving into the ocean at 2PM on Sunday August 13 from Ortegosa Beach (50 miles (80 km) west of Havana), she swam inside a 20 × 40-foot (6 × 12 m) steel shark cage for nearly 42 hours, before team doctors removed her during the 7 o'clock hour on the morning of Tuesday August 15 due to strong Westerly winds and 8-foot (2.4 m) swells that were slamming her against the cage and pushing her off-course towards Texas. She had covered about 76 miles (122 km), but not in a straight line.

• 1979: In what was to be her last "competitive" swim on her 30th birthday (August 21–22, 1979), she set a world record for distance swimming (both men and women) over open water by swimming 102 miles (164 km) from North Bimini Island, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida (without the use of protective shark cage). Thanks to favorable winds and a following sea she averaged 3.7 miles per hour (6.0 km/h) and completed the swim in 27 and one-half hours.

DREAMING THE BIG DREAM

PREPARATIONS

By early January 2010 Nyad determined to begin working out for a summer attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. Taking up residence in the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, from January through June she began doing 8-, 10-, 12- and 14-hour swims every other week. Then she moved her training to Key West and, while waiting for favorable weather conditions she embarked on a 24-hour swim. On July 10 she chartered a 35-foot fishing vessel to take her 40 miles (64 km) out to sea. At 8:19 AM she jumped overboard and began swimming back towards Key West, with the boat following her. At 8:19 AM the next day her handlers helped her back on board, still about 10 miles (16 km) from land: she said she felt "tired and dehydrated" but still "strong" and "easily able to swim another 20 hours without any problem."

On July 10, 2010, at the age of 60, she began open water training for a 60-hour, 103-mile (166 km) swim from Cuba to Florida, a task she had failed to finish thirty years previously. When asked her motivation, she replied, "Because I'd like to prove to the other 60-year-olds that it is never too late to start your dreams." She was scheduled to make the swim in August/September 2010, but bad weather forced her to cancel; she then planned to do the swim in July 2011. In an October 15, 2010 interview with CNN, Nyad said she was trained and ready to swim by July 23, but a record stretch of high winds and dropping water temperatures prevented her from making the attempt.

SECOND ATTEMPT

Some 33 years after her first attempt in 1978, Nyad entered the water again at Havana on August 7, 2011 at 7:45PM, a CNN news team on board her support ship to provide live coverage of her swim, which involved electronic "Shark Shields" but no shark cage. Nyad stopped her attempt early in the morning on August 9 at 12:45AM after 29 hours in the water, after encountering strong currents and winds that pushed her miles off course to the east. Nyad also said she had been suffering shoulder pain since her third hour in the water, but what made her abandon the effort was a flare-up of her asthma, such that, throughout the final hour, she could only swim a few strokes before repeatedly having to roll on her back to catch her breath.

THIRD ATTEMPT

On September 23, 2011, Nyad began a third attempt at the Cuba-to-Florida swim, again without a shark cage, but had to stop after about 41 hours, about 67 nautical miles (124 km) through the 103 nautical miles (191 km) passage, because of jellyfish and Portuguese man-of-war stings and after currents pushed her off course. Nyad's October 2011 TED talk described how box jellyfish stings on her forearm and neck caused respiratory distress that eventually caused the swim to end.

FOURTH ATTEMPT

On August 18, 2012, Nyad began her fourth attempt, without a protective shark cage. Nyad and her team ended the swim prematurely at 12:55 a.m. on August 21, 2012, reportedly because of two storms and nine jellyfish stings, after having covered more distance than her three previous attempts.

SUCCESSFUL FIFTH ATTEMPT

On the morning of August 31, 2013, Nyad began her fifth bid to swim from Havana, Cuba to Florida, a distance of about 110 miles (177 km), accompanied by a 35-person support team, swimming without a shark cage but protected from jellyfish by a silicone mask, a full bodysuit, gloves and booties. Before reaching Florida, Nyad broke Penny Palfrey's 2012 distance record for the Cuba to Florida swim, putting Nyad closer to Key West than anyone swimming without a shark cage. At approximately 1:55 pm EDT on September 2, 2013, Nyad reached the beach in Key West, about 53 hours after she began her journey.

THIS WOMAN

     1.   Has set three distance swimming world records

     2.   Is a renowned motivational speaker

     3.   Has authored three books

     4.   Was inducted into the US National Women’s Sport Hall of Fame

     5.   Was an International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honoree

     6.   Is the co-founder of Bravebody

LISTEN:

This lady refused to give up, she didn’t give any excuse for not fulfilling her dreams, not even the popular “am no longer young” excuse. All the trials and failures did not dent her drive for success, they only strengthened her resolve. She paid her dues, did her homework, focused on the big dream, worked with a great team and now we all celebrate her remarkable success. It never too late to pursue your dreams (to start that business, that blog, do that sport, launch that album, go back to school, get married, and the list goes on and on. Initial failure is not an excuse to settle for less than your big dream. DREAMS DO COME TRUE WHEN YOU DECIDE NOT TO GIVE UP. KEEP ON KEEPING ON.

References

www.wikipedia.org