Diana Nyad

Could I have taken my dog to the beach at sunrise instead of working out and giving him that thrill?

I try to go to bed every night, which means I want to go to bed on that last day of my life and say, I couldn't do everything.

I wish there was more time.

I wish I had achieved more, helped more.

experience more, but at least I can say every day I gave it everything I could.

So it's, you know, it's easy to say to someone who's been terribly abused and gone through desperate trauma, but if they can get to that point to say that guy, he has nothing to do with my life.

I'm living my life and it's precious and I've only got one.

So I better get living it the best I can.

Yeah.

You know, I think that whether you're playing the cello or swimming or playing chess or whatever you are as a kid, as a general rule, I think most kids pursue things that they're good at, you know?

Yeah.

Were you, you were immediately good at it, Diana?

I was good.

I was good at moving through the water.

I had a fire.

I wanted to take a long vision dream, and I liked working with discipline for years and years at something.

That's what really drove me to be a good swimmer, more than the actual talent of swimming, even though I would say I had that, too.

And at 17, you were really hoping to make the Olympic team, right?

I tried as I was a teenager and coming toward the Olympic trials for 68.

I did not make—I had one last 100-meter backstroke, and that night I would have either gone on to the Olympic trials the next day or I would go on to the rest of my life.