Diana Nyad brought down the house at TEDWomen, telling the story of how she completed a record-breaking swim at age 64. Photo: Marla Aufmuth

Diana Nyad swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, a journey that took her just under 53 hours last September. In today’s talk, Nyad gives a vivid account of what it was like to be out in the water, making her fifth attempt at this swim — one she first tried in 1978 when she was 28 years old. So how did she make it through the jellyfish, the unpredictable currents and the darkness “like you’ve never seen?”

Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up The answer, as Nyad reveals in today’s talk: a deep belief in perseverance, and some really good songs. Nyad says that singing a playlist to herself over and over again — anchored by John Lennon’s “Imagine” played more than 100 times — helped tremendously.

We asked Nyad to share the motivational playlist that propelled her through the swim and all the training it required. She obliged. As she sets it up: “Here’s a list of 120 songs … I sang in my head to ease the long hours, to connect with the infinitude of the majestic ocean. Some I know well and would sing all the way through, including humming the musical interludes. Others I would only use the chorus or maybe a first or second stanza — whatever moved me and gave me pleasure out there.”

Her playlist is divided into two parts—first, a Spotify playlist of artists ranging from Otis Redding to k.d. lang, and then a list of Beatles songs (not available on Spotify), as they are Nyad’s favorite.

[spotify id=”spotify:user:ted_talks:playlist:0Yqf8oWPzMiFM7b1boyf3x” width=”300″ height=”380″ /]

And now, her Beatles picks:

• “Day Tripper“
• “Run For Your Life“
• “I Should Have Known Better“
• “Hello Little Girl“
• “You Can’t Do That“
• “No Reply“
• “Paperback Writer“
• “Norwegian Wood“
• “A Hard Day’s Night“
• “In My Life“
• “I Feel Fine“
• “Eleanor Rigby“
• “Help!“
• “Nowhere Man“
• “Mean Mr Mustard“
• “Here Comes the Sun“
• “Because“
• “Get Back“
• “Let It Be“
• “I’m Looking Through You“
• “Polythene Pam“
• “Oh! Darling“
• “Sun King“

Diana Nyad has accomplished her biggest goal — swimming from Cuba to Florida — at age 64. Here, she talks at TEDMED 2011 about why. Photo: Klick Pharma

Extreme swimmer Diana Nyad has completed her longest swim yet … at the age of 64. Over the weekend, Nyad attempted the swim from Havana, Cuba, to the coast of Florida for the fifth time, and this time finished the ambitious 110-mile swim. The swim took Nyad a total of 53 hours — and made her the first person to complete this swim without the security of a shark cage.

Diana Nyad: Extreme swimming with the world's most dangerous jellyfish In her talk from TEDMED 2011, Nyad explains why she decided to embark on this swim — which she first attempted in 1978, when she was in her 20s, and failed. Nyad admits that she hadn’t swum a single stroke for more than 31 years when she decided to get back in the pool and train for this swim.

“A couple of years ago, I was turning 60 … I started grappling with this existential angst of what little I had done with my life,” says Nyad in this hugely inspiring talk. “I decided the remedy to all this malaise was going to be for me to chase an elevated dream, an extreme dream, something that would require utter conviction and unwavering passion, something that would make me be my best self in every aspect of my life … I decided that it was an old dream that was lingering.”

Nyad tried the swim in 2011, but wasn’t able to complete it. As she explains in this talk, it wasn’t that her body wasn’t ready. It was the terrible stings of the box jellyfish. “I was on fire — excruciating, excruciating pain,” says Nyad. “At 41 hours, this body couldn’t make it.”

After her TEDMED talk, Nyad tried the swim again — twice — with a full bodysuit and mask, but her attempts were cut short because of boat trouble, bad weather and treacherous currents. But this weekend, Nyad was able to complete the swim with the help of her support team. Upon washing up on the Florida shore, Nyad was taken to the hospital for observation because of slurred speech, but was cleared as healthy. She says that this time around, the worst part of the swim was the sunburn.

“I have three messages,” Nyad said to reporters after the swim. “One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you’re never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team.”

Nyad received much love on Twitter for finally reaching this goal, four decades in the making. Among others, President Barack Obama tweeted, “Congratulations to @DianaNyad. Never give up on your dreams.”

This past Monday, swimmer Diana Nyad made her fourth attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. Though this attempt ended when weather and jellyfish conditions took a turn for the worse, we can look back at her talk from TEDMED 2011 to understand how she — and all of us — found “grace in the face of defeat.” From her experience and that of other TEDsters who tell inspiring stories of pushing their body to its limits, we can better understand humanity and society from its extremes.

Diana Nyad: Extreme swimming with the world’s most dangerous jellyfish
In this talk, Diana Nyad shares her dream to swim from Havana to Key West — a multi-day, open-ocean route whose challenge is as much mental and environmental as physical. (Environmental? Yes. When Nyad spoke to reporters this afternoon, she told CBS News: “I’m not a quitter, but the sport and this particular ocean are different than they used to be. These jellyfish are prolific. And, you know what? To me, there’s no joy in that.” The backstory here: As the world’s oceans become depleted of large fish, jellyfish are moving in to take their place. Watch Jeremy Jackson’s powerful TEDTalk, “How we wrecked the ocean,” for more on the jellyfish population explosion.)

Lewis Pugh’s mind-shifting Everest swim
Lewis Pugh goes for “symbolic swims” in extreme locations to draw attention to global climate change. These athletic feats are physically grueling — imagine swimming 5,000 feet up in the freezing water of a lake on Mount Everest, in just a Speedo — but that’s nothing compared to the mental challenge. In this inspiring talk from TEDGlobal, Pugh shares what he learned, and how we can apply these ideas to climate change, the “Mount Everest of all problems.”

Ben Saunders skis to the North Pole
Pushing human capacity to its limit at the end of the world is what Ben Saunders does best. His record-breaking Arctic adventures explore the limits of physiology, psychology and of technology, testing how far humans can push themselves, while raising awareness of the rapidly changing situation at the North and South Poles. In October 2012 he plans to complete the South Pole route last traveled by Captain R.F. Scott.

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