Diana Nyad: Never, Ever Give Up | TED Talk
Video 1 Never, ever give up
It's the fifth time I stand on this shore, the Cuban shore, looking out at that distant horizon, believing, again,
that I'm going to make it all the way across that vast, dangerous wilderness of an ocean.
Not only have I tried four times but the greatest swimmers in the world have been trying since 1950, and it's still never been done.
The team is proud of our four attempts.
It's an expedition of some thirty people.
Bonnie is my best friend and head handler,
who somehow sommons will, that last drop of will within me, when I think it's gone, after many many hours and days out there.
The shark experts are the best in the world -- large predators below.
The boxjellyfish, the deadiest venom in all of the ocean, is in these waters, and I have come close to dying from them, on a previous attempt.
The conditions themselves, besides the sheer distance of over 100 miles in the open ocean,
currents,whirling eddies and the Gulf Stream itself, the most unpredictable of all of the planet Earth.
And by the way -- it's amusing to me that journalists and people, you know, before these attempts, you know, often ask me,
"Well, are you going to go with any boats or any people or any thing?"
And I'm thinking, what are they imagining? That I'll just sort of do celestial navigation--
and carry a bowie knife in my mouth,
and I'll hunt fish and skim them alive and eat them, and maybe drag a desalinization plant behind me for fresh water.
Yes I have a team.
And the team is expert, and the team is courageous, and brimming with inovation and scientific discovery.
As is true with any major expedition on the planet.
Questions
Why does Nyad describe the Cuben Shore?
>to bring the audience into the story.
Why was it amusing to Nyad when people ask if she need help while swimming?
>It is obviously impossible to complete the journey without assistance.
To be brimming with something means...
>to be full of it.
Not only have I tried four times but the greatest swimmers in the world have been trying since 1950, and it's still never been done.
For Nyad, the journey is a personal battle that she can't stop fighting.
What does swimming accross the ocean mean to Nayd?
>it's a personal battle that she can't stop fighting.
To innovate means...
>to develop new ideas or ways of doing things.
