US Swimmer
AP-APTN-0630: US Swimmer
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
STORY:US Swimmer- Jellyfish cause woman to abandon attempt to swim from Florida to Cuba
LENGTH: 02:45
FIRST RUN: 0330
RESTRICTIONS: See Script
TYPE: English/Natsound
SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/Handout
STORY NUMBER: 855584
DATELINE: 21 Aug 2012
LENGTH: 02:45
SHOTLIST:
Florida Keys News Service handout - AP Clients Only
1. Wide of boat where Diana Nyad jumps off to swim to shore after quitting fourth attempt to swim across Florida straits
2. Various of Nyad swimming towards shore
3. Nyad standing up in water and waving to team and crowd waiting
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4. Various of Nyad team in 'Cuba Swim 2012' shirts cheering as she comes towards shore
5. Nyad standing in water near shore
Florida Keys News Service handout - AP Clients Only
6. Zoom in close up of Nyad hugging her team
AP Television - AP Clients Only
7. Nyad walking up stairs and hugging boy with flowers
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Diana Nyad, marathon swimmer:
"This is history out here. No one has ever done it and really in this day and age, the earth has gotten to be a pretty small place. All the mountains have been climbed, all the deserts have been crossed, but this piece of ocean has never been done by a swimmer without a cage."
9. Cutaway to cheering crowd
Florida Keys News Service handout - AP Clients Only
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Diana Nyad, marathon swimmer:
"I stand here proud, tall and proud. I think it's like anything, when you retire or let go of something extreme, it's hard to come down. That's is going to be the hard part for me, but I tell you when I was swimming yesterday, I had all these speeches planned for the shore and I'm realising honestly they are the same speeches, make it or not make it. It was a journey, intense journey."
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11. Medium pan of team laying towel down as Nyad climbs on it
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Diana Nyad, marathon swimmer:
"So you know what, when you ask me a fifth time, I'm not a quitter, but the sport and this particular ocean are different than it used to be. These jelly fish are prolific and you know what, to me there is no joy in that."
13. Various of Nyad getting medical treatment after coming ashore
STORYLINE:
Diana Nyad ended her fourth attempt to swim across the Straits of Florida on Tuesday, her decades-old dream thwarted, more than anything else, by jellyfish.
Storms brewing around her and repeated jellyfish stings forced her out of the water, her crew said.
She travelled by boat close to a rocky shoreline in Key West on Tuesday afternoon, just over 72 hours after setting out from Cuba. She made a final short swim to a waiting crowd.
Nyad turns 63 on Wednesday and logged 41 hours and 45 minutes of swim time.
Her lips swollen from jellyfish stings, she appeared weary as she was helped from the water at her arrival in the US, though she insisted her muscles weren't even sore.
She was given asthma inhalers, oxygen and an intravenous drip, mostly out of sight of the gathering crowd.
She all but ruled out a fifth try at attempting the crossing, though she also had ruled out a fourth one after failing last year.
"I'm not a quitter, but the sport and this particular ocean are different than they used to be," she said. "These jellyfish are prolific. And, you know what? To me, there's no joy in that."
Nyad plunged into the water on Saturday afternoon in Havana and lasted longer and made it further than on her previous attempts, her team said.
She first tried the swim in 1978, in a shark cage. She tried twice last year, without a shark cage, but again and again the record eluded her.
Australian Susie Maroney successfully swam the Straits in 1997, but she used a shark cage. In June, another Australian, Penny Palfrey, made it 79 miles (127 kilometres) towards Florida without a cage before strong currents forced her to abandon the attempt.
Monday night proved the most challenging of all for Nyad, with team members fending off sharks, waves crashing in stormy weather, jellyfish sting after sting, and Nyad fighting off a lowered body temperature and the threat of hypothermia.
Nyad had been training for three years for the attempt.
She was accompanied by a support team in boats, and a kayak-borne apparatus shadowing her to keep sharks at bay by generating a faint electric field.
A team of handlers was on alert to dive in and distract any sharks that made it through.
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APEX 08-22-12 0247EDT