Senior US distance swimmer Diana Nyad said Friday she was better prepared than ever to swim from Cuba to Florida, just hours before her third attempt to reach her goal.
Shoulder pain, asthma and ocean swells prevented Nyad, 62, in August to fulfill her quest to swim the 100 miles (161 kilometers) across the treacherous Florida Straits from Havana from Key West, Florida.
"Now I'm in better condition that I was in August, and I'm as prepared as ever... to achieve this dream," Nyad, speaking in Spanish, told reporters gathered at the Ernest Hemmingway International Nautical Club, just west of Havana.
Nyad is set to plunge into the ocean at this point at 6:00 pm local time (2200 GMT).
If Nyad succeeds, she will be the first person to swim the stretch of ocean without a shark cage.
Australian swimmer Susie Maroney, at 22, became the first person to swim from Cuba to the United States in 1997, though she used a shark cage.
Nyad said she is ready for the 60-plus hour ordeal.
"If I could swim to the half-way point dealing with asthma, I know today that I can complete it," she said, referring to her August attempt.
Nyad tried to swim across the shark-infested straights in 1978, but gave up after 42 hours in the water due to bad weather.
Nyad set an open sea record by swimming from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys -- a journey that is the same distance as the Cuba-Florida swim, but a feat she described as much less dangerous.
As in her previous journey, five yachts and four kayaks will accompany her, along with a 45-person support team, including trained shark divers and electronic devices designed to repel the predators.
Nyad set a record for circling the island of Manhattan at the age of 50, clocking in at seven hours and 57 minutes.
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