Record-holding endurance swimmer Diana Nyad was forced to abort her attempt to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage Tuesday due to struggles with a painful shoulder, asthma and harsh ocean conditions.
"I would be lying to say I'm not deeply, deeply disappointed," the 61-year-old told
CNN. "This was a big dream, not just of the last two years but some 30
years ago when I tried it."
Nyad was vomiting when she was brought aboard a boat at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday -- 29 hours after she jumped into the water Sunday, CNN reports.
"The swim was in me," she told CNN, but other conditions were not on her side.
Nyad said that by the the third hour of her journey she began
experiencing pain in her right shoulder, according to CNN. By hour 15, her asthma was acting up, and by the 28th hour she was forced to rest every 30 to 40 freestyle strokes just to breathe.
"Asthma took so much out of me," she told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta. "I couldn't overcome it."
The swimmer said she took at least 40 inhaler puffs and even oxygen to help improve her breathing, CNN reports.
"We did everything we could to get out of asthma distress, but I couldn't have gone another hour, couldn't have done it," she said, as reported by CNN.
This was her second attempt at swimming from Cuba to Florida; her first endeavor was in 1978.
Nyad, who had been training for the event for two years by swimming up to 12 hours a day, says it is unlikely she will attempt the Cuba to Florida swim again, CNN reports.