FROM CUBA TO FLORIDA I DID SWIM.

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Diana Nyad on mask.
As part of a series called My Big Break, All Things Considered is collecting stories of triumph, big and small. These are the moments when everything seems to click, and people leap forward into their careers.
When long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad turned 60, she was determined to complete her life's biggest challenge.
"In the context of your phrase, 'my big break,' when I turned 60, there was a true, existential anxiety about how much time is left," Nyad says. "My mom had just died; she was 82. And at age 60, I thought, 'Uh-uh, I'm not going into that good night. I am going to fire up and live this thing as large as I can live it until I can't live it that large anymore.' "
She decided to attempt a record-breaking swim — from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Fla., over 110 miles away. But these weren't uncharted waters for her. Nyad had actually tried — and failed — this swim four times before.

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