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Diana Nyad swims along Florida's Gold Coast in July 1978. On her fifth attempt, Nyad, now 64, became the first person to swim the 103 miles from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. The endurance swimmer achieved her lifelong ambition of conquering the Straits of Florida on Monday, September 2, after four earlier setbacks. Lynn Pelham/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
Nyad faces the media in August 1978 before her first attempt to swim from Cuba to the United States. Lynn Pelham/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
Nyad gets rescued from the water during her 1978 attempt. Lynn Pelham/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
Nyad holds a press conference in August 2011 in Havana, Cuba. Ocean swells, shoulder pain and asthma forced the swimmer to abandon her efforts at about the halfway point on this second attempt.
ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images
ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images
Nyad jumps into the ocean at the Ernest Hemingway Nautical Club in Havana in September 2011. She was making her third attempt. ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images
Nyad prepares to leave Havana in August 2012 on her fourth try. ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images
Nyad waves before attempting the three-day, nonstop journey from Havana to Florida on Saturday, August 31. YAMIL LAGE/AFP/Getty Images
Nyad takes a drink after completing her 53-hour swim from Cuba to Key West, Florida, on Monday, September 2. Nyad is the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. She completed the 110-mile swim on her fifth try. ANDREW INNERARITY/Reuters /Landov
