The HardCoreSwim of the week goes to Diana Nyad, for her 110 mile swim at 64 years old! Nyad became the first person to ever swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida without the aid of a shark cage.
Nyad finished the 110 mile swim successfully in just under 53 hours and was able to walk up the beach without assistance. Her official time: 52 hours, 54 minutes 18.6 seconds.
After initial shock and awe of her record, many folks have chirped up questioning the validity of the record, English channel rules, shark divers, and jellyfish masks. All of those facts are terribly relevant to whether or not the open water community accepts this as a “record,” and should not be diminished.
None of that, however, has any bearing on how hardcore this swim was. Yes she had a jellyfish mask, but that mask was incredibly uncomfortable, and impaired her breathing. Her shoulders hurt within the first few hours. She’s 64 years old! She swam as many miles without holding a wall, standing on the bottom, or pushing off as even mega yardage teams like the Florida Gators do in a week. Record qualifications are entirely a valid subject for debate and argument but whether or not this swim was HardCore is not.
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I’m not sure how hardcore it actually was:
http://www.marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/comment/7943#Comment_7943
completelyconquered – I think it’s a good theory, but it makes a very significant, unproven leap that all of the reporting signals were at an even interval. I wouldn’t think it holds much weight until someone gets verification that these assumptions are fact. If someone did so, then it could get very interesting.
According to some news stories she was going nearly 4 mph at one point. That’s REALLY fast. I have to admit I’m a bit skeptical at this point.
Also, she said a bunch of really dumb things after Fran Crippen died.
The real hardcore swim