You can fault 62-year-old ultraswimmer Diana Nyad for hubris, for thinking she could swim from Cuba to the U.S. She’s failed, despite trying and re-trying what’s considered by many to be the toughest open water swim in the world. Still, you can’t say Nyad’s not driven, nor that she hasn’t learned, or isn’t funny, fascinating, or hasn’t lived one of the richest, most varied lives of any modern athlete. She was once considered the very best distance swimmer in history, and maybe she still is in some sense, with a drive and still the will to dream huge. It’s people like Nyad that should take even a cynic’s breath away, and this excellent profile also opens the door far enough so we aren’t left with the portrait of a hero, but of a human being — a complete sense of a person you’re not so likely to find on most sports pages.

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