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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives wish to congratulate Diana Nyad on the occasion
4of being the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without
5the protection of a shark cage; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Diana Nyad was born on August 22, 1949 in New York
7City, New York; after her family moved to Fort Lauderdale,
8Florida, she began swimming competitively in the 7th grade; in
9the mid-1960s, she was enrolled at the private Pine Crest
10School, where she swam under the tutelage of Olympian and Hall
11of Fame coach Jack Nelson; during this time, she won three
12Florida State high school championships; after graduating from
13Pine Crest School in 1967 and briefly attending Emory
14University, she enrolled at Lake Forest College, where she
15resumed swimming and started training in distance events; she
16graduated from Lake Forest College in 1973 with a degree in
17English and French; and
 
18    WHEREAS, After college, Diana Nyad began concentrating on
19distance swimming; in 1979, she swam from the Bimini Islands in
20the Bahamas to Florida, setting a distance record for non-stop
21swimming without a wetsuit that still stands today; she also
22broke many world records during this time, including the
23women's record of 8 hours, 11 minutes in the 22-mile Bay of

 

 

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1Naples race in 1974; in 1975, she made national headlines by
2swimming 28 miles around the island of Manhattan in 7 hours and
357 minutes, breaking the 45-year-old record; in 1979, she set a
4world record for distance swimming over open water by swimming
5102 miles from North Bimini Island, Bahamas, to Juno Beach,
6Florida without the use of a protective shark cage, completing
7the swim in 27 hours and 30 minutes; and
 
8    WHEREAS, By January of 2010, Diana Nyad was determined to
9begin training for a summer attempt to swim from Cuba to
10Florida. Taking up residence in the Caribbean island of St.
11Maarten, from January through June she began doing 8-, 10-,
1212-, and 14-hour swims every other week; on July 10, 2010, at
13the age of 60, she began open water training for a 60-hour,
14103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida; a combination of adverse
15weather conditions and jellyfish stings prevented her from
16completing attempts in August and September of 2011, but Diana
17Nyad would not be deterred; after another attempt in August of
182012 was thwarted by jellyfish stings, she decided to wear a
19silicone mask, a full bodysuit, gloves, and booties for
20protection; and
 
21    WHEREAS, On the morning of August 31, 2013, Diana Nyad
22began her fifth bid to swim from Havana, Cuba to Florida, a
23distance of about 110 miles, without a shark cage; before
24reaching Florida, she broke a 2012 distance record for the Cuba

 

 

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1to Florida swim, putting Nyad closer to Key West than anyone
2swimming without a shark cage; at approximately 12:55 PM
3Central Time on September 2, 2013, she reached the beach in Key
4West, about 53 hours after she began her journey; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Diana Nyad serves as a model of hard work,
6courage, and determination for the people of the State of
7Illinois; therefore, be it
 
8    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
9NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
10we congratulate Diana Nyad on the occasion of being the first
11person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a
12shark cage and wish her continued success and happiness in her
13future endeavors; and be it further
 
14    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
15presented to Diana Nyad as a symbol of our esteem and respect.