Netflix is close to ending a production about diana nyadthe New York-born long-distance swimmer who ten years ago became the first person to swim across, and without a shark cage, the distance from Cuba to Florida.
It still does not have precise dates for the premiere of the film, although from Netflix they confirm to OnCuba which is expected to happen this 2023.
The company commissioned the explorers of National Geographic (NG) Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi directed the film that stars Annette Bening, in the role of the swimmer, and Jodie Foster, as her journalist friend.
The directors were in charge of the documentary Free Solowhich in 2018 won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film by covering the feat of climber Alex Honnold, who without any help climbed the vertical rock formation about 900 meters high, “El Capitan”, located in Yosemite National Park (Mariposa County, USA).
“Never give up”
Diana Nyadle’s story went around the world when in 2013 she swam across the Straits of Florida. She was 64 years old, and: “Never give up” was her advice when she arrived on a Key West beach.
It was September 2, 2013, and Nyad had spent nearly 53 hours in the water since leaving the Club Náutico Internacional Hemingway, west of Havana. No one had swum between those two points without a protective shark cage.
But, to achieve this, the swimmer had fought against strong winds in a physical effort that tested her ability, to the point of making her vomit several times after swallowing too much water, recalled a report published this week by the magazine NG.
Medics guarding Nyad on support boats reported on the day of her record that her tongue and lips were so swollen that her voice had become mushy.
Even near Key West, a large jellyfish appeared on the road. To prevent her from suffering a debilitating sting, several divers swam ahead of the athlete.
“What Diana has shown us over the years is that she is an extraordinary endurance swimmer. She has the mental strength and discipline, perhaps the mental strength and discipline that a younger person does not have, ”the sports cardiologist told NG Benjamin Levinewho is director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, a research collaboration between UT Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
In addition to an “adventure”
Five attempts in thirty years it took Nyad to overcome the 177 kilometers that separate Cuba from Florida.
His first attempt had been in 1978, when he was 28 years old. It was the only time inside a shark cage, although she also gave up due to bad weather after 42 hours. The other attempts were in August and September 2011.
Her last high seas swimming record, for both men and women, had been in 1979, when she swam 165 kilometers between Bimini, Bahamas, and Key West, Florida – a trip roughly the same distance as Cuba-Florida. , but considered much less risky, pointed out AFP.
The swimmer, who grew up in Miami surrounded by Cuban émigrés and hearing about the island, had said before leaving that with her adventure she also sought to bring Cuba and the United States closer together, countries that have been separated for political reasons for half a century and that were then for taking a turn in their relationships, spoiled shortly after.
