Born in 1949, Diana Nyad took an early interest in swimming as a sport and was a Florida State High School swimming champion. Like many young athletes, she had Olympic dreams, but a serious illness kept her from competing in the Games. The disappointment didn't stop her from going forward. Instead, she became interested in marathon swimming. A brilliant athlete, she was well-conditioned for spending long periods of time in the water. As a long-distance swimmer, she would compete against herself and the obstacles¹ presented by distance, danger, cold,and exhaustion².

For ten years Nyad devoted³ herself to becoming one of the world's best long-distance swimmers. In 1970, she swam a ten-mile marathon in Lake Ontario, setting⁴ the women's record for the course. In 1972 she set another record by swimming 102.5 miles from an island in the Bahamas to the coast of Florida. Then she broke a third record when swimming around Manhattan Island in 1975.

Nyad attempted to swim the distance between Florida and Cuba in 1978.Though the span⁵ of water is less than 100 miles wide, it is rough and dangerous. After battling the water for two days, she had to give up for the sake⁶ of her own health and safety. Even so, she impressed the world with her courage and strong desire to succeed. For Nyad her strength of purpose was just as important as reading Cuba.That is how she defined⁷ success. It did not matter that her swim came up short；she believed she had touched the other shore.

When Nyad ended her career as a swimmer, she continued to try new things-travelling the world as a reporter, writing books and giving public speeches about her life. Diana Nyad works⁸ to inspire others, just as she did when she swam the waters of the world.

文章大意：

出生于1949年的戴安娜.耐德早期对体育项目-游泳很感兴趣，并获得了佛罗里达州高中部游泳冠军。和许多年轻运动员一样，她也有着参加奥运会的梦想，但是一场重大的疾病令她无法实现梦想。但是困难阻挡不了她前进的步伐。相反，她开始对马拉松游感兴趣。她是一名出色的运动员，因为她能够在水下呆很长时间。而作为一名长距离游泳运动员，她经常和自己以及距离、危险、寒冷和疲惫所带来的障碍进行竞争。

十年来，耐德一直致力于成为世界上最好的长距离游泳运动员之一。1970年，她在安大略湖参加了一场10英里的马拉松比赛，创下了女子游泳项目的记录。1972年，她又创下了另一项纪录，从巴哈马群岛的一个小岛游到佛罗里达海岸，共游了102.5英里。1975年，她在曼哈顿岛游泳时打破了第三项纪录。

1978年，耐德试图挑战游过佛罗里达州和古巴之间的海域。虽然水的跨度小于100英里，但是水流湍急，很危险。在和水流较量了两天后，出于对自身健康和安全的考虑，她不得不放弃了。即便如此，她仍因为她的勇气和强烈的成功欲望给全世界留下了深刻的印象。对耐德来说，她的目标和读懂古巴的历史一样重要。这就是她如何定义成功的，她这次游得很短并不重要，重要的是她相信自己已经触到了彼岸。

当耐德结束她的游泳生涯时，她继续尝试新事物——和记者一样周游世界，写书，公开演讲自己的生活。她工作的目的在于激励他人，就像她之前挑战佛罗里达和古巴之间的海域一样。