Diana Nyad at the end of her 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida. Photograph: Zuma/Rex Features  Diana Nyad said that she was "done with ocean swimming" after successfully swimming from Cuba to Florida, a goal that had eluded her for 35 years.  Speaking to reporters in Key West on Tuesday, a day after reaching her goal, the 64-year-old said she was as "sick as a dog" from swallowing so much seawater. Nyad said that she would not give up endurance swimming altogether, focusing instead on events in swimming pools.  Nyad said she was delighted to have finally achieved her goal. "All my life, I don't know where it came from, I believed in dreaming big," she said. "It doesn't satisfy me to have small dreams and I can't tell you what a big, big dream this is out here. It's tough stuff."  Nyad started her fifth attempt to cross the 110-mile span between Cuba and the US at 8.59am on Saturday. She arrived in Florida just before 2pm local time on Monday, after negotiating difficult water conditions, avoiding jellyfish and swimming without the protection of a shark cage for nearly 53 hours.  At Florida's Oceanside Marina on Tuesday, Nyad praised and thanked her support team for assisting her as she stayed in the water for the entire 110-mile swim and took breaks only to be fed nutrition gels and water through a tube every 40 minutes.  She first attempted to cross the strait 35 years ago, with a shark cage, but ended that journey after 76 miles. Since then, Nyad said, she has changed from being interested in medals and awards associated with the accomplishments to inspiring people to pursue their dreams. "People's individual reactions mean everything," she said.  Before the swim, Nyad said that it would be her final attempt at the feat, whether or not she succeeded.  Susie Maroney is the only other person who has provided sufficient documentation to show she completed the swim, but she did so with the assistance of a shark cage.  Nyad described the Cuba to Florida feat as the Everest of open-water swimming. She said she plans to celebrate the swim with a party, starting on Tuesday night and lasting for more than 53 hours.  According to her crew, Nyad made the swim without flippers or taking breaks on the boat. To protect against jellyfish stings, Nyad wore a special suit that slowed her swim and a face cream to protect against stings. Part of her crew scouted the water in front of her to be sure it was free of jellyfish. She also relied on a prosthetic mask. Jellyfish are a common hazard in open-water swimming.  The mask made it easier for seawater to get in her mouth and she said she swallowed "tremendous volumes of seawater", which resulted in mouth sores and constant vomiting while she swam. "I was sick as a dog," she told NBC. She said that at the late hours between 2-4am in the morning, she relied on Neil Young's The Needle and the Damage Done to keep her going, even while she saw such delusions as the Taj Mahal.  Before the record becomes official, record-book keepers will have to assess data kept by crew members during the swim, to be sure Nyad did not use fins or take breaks on the boat. Record-keepers must also assess the route and conditions to verify the distance and time of her journey.  Nyad told CNN she plans to continue endurance swimming in pools. She is set to swim for 48 hours next month, to raise money for people left homeless by Hurricane Sandy; she also plans to raise money through swimming for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing and of a tornado that devastated the city of Moore, Oklahoma.
American woman says she intends to raise money for charity with further endurance swims – in swimming pools