KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Marathon swimmer Diana Nyad says she didn’t anticipate how seriously Portuguese man o’war and jellyfish could derail her dream to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys.
Nyad stopped her swim Sunday morning after 40 hours in the water and two serious man o’war stings. In Key West on Monday, Nyad said she had felt ready to finish the crossing she had failed twice before. But for now, she says she does not plan to try it again.
The 62-year-old says her team had prepared to encounter man o’war in the Florida Straits. But she says she naively dismissed the jellyfish-like creatures as a serious threat. She took off her shirt to show red welts still visible from the stings on her tanned skin.
