When Diana Nyad was a young woman, she was one of the best swimmers on the planet.  She owned several world records, including swimming from Bimini to Florida (102.5 miles) and swimming around Manhattan in under 8 hours.  She was pretty impressive.  As it turns out, she’s still impressive despite being near retirement age.  The endurance swimmer has an unusual goal in mind.  At 61 years old, Diana Nyad is planning to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage (warning, video auto-starts).  That’s 103 miles; it’s also a long-time goal for Nyad, who first attempted the swim in 1978, but was thwarted by high winds and bad weather.

“I’m standing here in the prime of my life … Now I look out at a dead, flat calm, so I think this is my day,” said Nyad, who took off from Marina Hemingway in Havana, Cuba, with a team of 45 handlers, including divers who will watch for sharks and rescue personnel.

The journey is expected to be 60 hours in length, which is incredible.  As for Nyad, she’s still in great shape, so if any 60-something can pull this off, it’s her.  The swim would be yet another world record in Nyad’s book of bests.

Tags: Diana Nyad, woman swims from Cuba to Florida, woman swims Strait of Florida, Strait of Florida, 103-mile swim from Florida to Cuba, woman swims 103 miles, woman swims 103 miles in shark-infested waters, 61-year-old woman to swim from Florida to Cuba, endurance swimming, swimming world records, unusual feats, swimming, Marina Hemingway

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]