<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Here&amp;#039;s the real headline: Diana Nyad is so, so cool. Yesterday, the long distance swimmer (age 64, which is just seriously WTF) became the first woman to swim the 110-mile journey between Havana, Cuba and Key West, Florida solo without the protection of a shark cage. It was such a badass move that even the President gave her a little nod:    Congratulations to @DianaNyad. Never give up on your dreams. \u2014 Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 2, 2013   As NBC notes, the Florida strait is notoriously difficult to swim, not only due to the long distance, cold water temperatures, and infestations of jellyfish and sharks (sounds a little treacherous, no?). It was conquered in 1997 by an Australian swimmer named Susie Maroney, who used a protective cage to avoid getting, you know, eaten alive by sharks or whatever; a swimmer named Chloe McCardel had to abandon her attempt this June after 11 hours when she was stung by a jellyfish.  It seems noteworthy that all of those attempts were performed by women, which raises the question: Is this a task only women are ballsy enough to tackle? Research shows that swimming is one of the few competitive sports where men and women are neck-and-neck (in most, women are outperformed); in fact, competitive open water swimming is one of the only athletic events in the competition where women often outperform men on some metrics. Data compiled by Open Water Source shows that even while men usually perform better than women in triathlons, &amp;quot;open water swimming appears to be different. Women do appear to perform better, relative to their male counterparts, especially as the distances increase.&amp;quot;  Is that why 64-year-old Diana Nyad was the first person to do what so many others have tried? It&amp;#039;s definitely part of it. The other part being, well, she&amp;#039;s super awesome. Photo via AFP Follow Sam on Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/news/a15444/diana-nyad-swimming/>