Havana, Cuba (CNN) - Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad's latest attempt to swim across the Straits of Florida ended Tuesday morning after severe jellyfish stings and a lightning storm put her off course, her team said.
The 63-year-old had been in the water for 60 hours and was about halfway through her swim from Cuba to Florida, on her fourth attempt to swim the 100+ miles from Cuba to Florida.
Nyad talks with Soledad this morning on "Starting Point," explaining that her biggest hurdle was the jellyfish.
"I'm not a quitter," Nyad says. "And there's nothing that could keep me from going over there again. It doesn't matter about big summer storms that come through, and gulf streams that are tricky to navigate, none of all that stuff matters. But, Soledad, the damn jellyfish are frightening. I was stung across the lips. It's not just pain. I can tolerate pain. But these animals take you down. They take your heart and your lungs, and slow your weight. They can be fatal. Many people die from the box jellyfish, and they're now prolific out here.
Nyad adds, "I'm out there to show my will, and to show that this 62-year-old body is pretty darn strong and fit, to show that I have a team that's expert in all their dimensions. We were like a fine-oiled machine moving across. It was fantastic. The jellyfish, they're too big for me."
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Darn sea creatures....what are they doing in the ocean? Don't they know I had the ocean reserved for my ego? Diane thinks the world would be a better place if she went swimming in the ocean.